The Commissioner of Rumbek East County in Lakes State, Mading Gaak, has sentenced a ram that killed a woman in the area to three years in jail.
Last weekend, police in Rumbek told Radio Tamazuj that they were holding a ram that knocked a woman to death in the Akuelyol village of Pacong Payam in Rumbek East.
According to reports, 45-year-old Adhieng Chaping was attempting to stand up when she was repeatedly knocked around the ribs by the sheep.
Area commissioner Mading Gaak then visited the scene of the incident last Wednesday and ordered the detention of the sheep pending trial.
The press secretary in the office of the commissioner, Kok Makoi Madeng, when contacted about the matter, said the commissioner ordered the owner of the ram to pay five cows as blood compensation to the family of the deceased.
“This compensation was done based on understanding between parties from both sides before community elders, and in enforcing law and order,” Makoi said. “It is quite clear that no one is above the law, thus anyone committing crimes must face the law.”
He added that Mayom Mapuor Dedeong, a biological son of the deceased, signed and received the five cows as compensation on behalf of the family while a one Meen Mading Lam signed on behalf of the sheep’s owner in agreement with the commissioner’s order.
According to Makoi, the ram will be transferred from Pacong police station to a military facility in Aduel, Rumbek East County headquarters.
However, a member of the Pacong Payam Special Court in Rumbek East, Sultan Taban Malual, disagreed with the commissioner’s verdict, calling it illegal. He argued that the sentence is not in line with the customary laws of the area.
“We are here in Pacong and this case of a ram has not reached the office of our special court,” Sultan Malual said. “It is known in animal keeping communities that when a cow, sheep, or goat has done any harm to a human being, whether by killing or injury by removing a person’s eye or breaking a leg, it is the same particular animal that is awarded as blood compensation by the court and nothing else is paid to the deceased family as blood compensation.”
He said the customary law was clear and that the parties might have resolved the matter outside court.