Olivia Muchena : Mutoko South Constituency

Olivia  Nyembesi Muchena is the Zanu PF MP for Mutoko South Constituency, she is the current Women’s Affairs and Gender Development Minister. Olivia Muchena who is a lay preacher in the United Methodist Church is reliably reported to have suspended all her church activities in 2008 to concentrate on the Zanu PF campaign  for the presidential run off elections. Despite her advanced age (63 years) and religious prominence she amazed many of her victims and supporters included with the terrible vigor and brutality she manifested in executing her missions in the terror campaign against MDC supporters in the whole of Mutoko district. She worked in cahoots with the notorious killer gangs of  Bramwell Katsvairo and others. Locals noted  frequent nocturnal meetings of these teams at Mutoko centre reportedly held at Olivia Muchena’s house. She never fails to declare her profound support and utmost admiration of the Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe’s stance against whites whenever she gets the chance to address any gathering irrespective of whether it’s a funeral or political rally.  Some of the recorded incidents of political violence directly linked to Olivia Nyembesi Muchena are listed below. Olivia’s reported trail of systematic violations date as far back as 2000 and has consistently maintained her bloody campaigns through out subsequent elections.

April 1, 2008 

On 1 April 2008 Olivia Muchena sent one of the leaders of her campaign team known as Richard Makoni to accompany Bramwell Katsvairo on a mission to eliminate some targets in the districts. Makoni’s task was to identify the wanted MDC activists for Katsvairo. In the afternoon of that fateful Tuesday the killer squad caught up with xxx  at Chibeta Business Centre, who was positively identified by Makoni.  xxx was shot at close range by Katsvairo and died on the spot. Olivia Muchena is said to have issued an order that Tatenda be buried immediately and that there was no need for a postmortem.

April 14, 2008

Olivia Muchena instructed her gang of Zanu PF youths to go and force a known MDC district official xxx to attend a rally she was addressing at Chidye Centre. xxx set off for the rally in the company of three other MDC supporters including his sister. Little did they know that Bramwell Katsvairo was waylaying them along the road to the rally ostensibly at the behest of Olivia Muchena. They never got to the Centre as Katsvairo approached them from nowhere and shot xxx twice in the stomach he dropped to the ground instantly. The other three people in his company report that they were so terrified that it took them some time to come to terms with what had happened, though they tried to help xxx it was too late. He  was dead.

April 14,  2008

A gang of Zanu PF militia led by Kwirira a war veteran abducted xxx from Dumaira Centre in Mutoko South accusing him of campaigning for the MDC. They bundled him into Olivia Muchena’s pick up truck and assaulted him to death not far away from Dumaira Bussiness centre. Xxx was buried near Ushamba School with just his relatives in attendance.  

April 16, 2008

Order Nyakudanga and Chatambudza  Makoni all high ranking Zanu PF district officials called for an all must attend rally at Rukawo Business centre where, several MDC supporters were flushed out of the crowd and subjected to brutal  thorough beatings. Xxx  one of the MDC activists in the area who was unfortunate enough to have been identified at the rally went through a torrid time as the Zanu PF senior officials worked him over, displaying their war time torture skills before a terrified and spell bound crowd.
Xxx and quite a number of other MDC supporters had been bashed and reduced to a sprawled mass of humanity when Olivia Muchena arrived at the meeting around 1600 hrs. Nyakudanga gave an account of what had transpired at the meeting and how the traitors had been adequately punished, but Olivia Muchena told the victims that they had not been beaten enough as she invited the youths in her entourage a bunch of other blood thirsty hounds to subject xxx and his comrades to yet another severe round of assault that lasted quite a longtime. Eyewitnesses say they saw one of the victims die and was taken away in one of the trucks in Muchena’s convoy.

May 1, 2008

Olivia Muchena leading a group of Zanu PF youths descended on xxx homestead in the afternoon of 1 May 2008 and destroyed it to the ground. They assaulted her and left her for dead they took away two goats for food at their base.

May 5, 2008

A group of Zanu PF youths who had been seen in the afternoon of that day driving around Hoyuyu resettlement areas in the company of the Zanu PF MP  Olivia Muchena raided and abducted xxx in the evening. The group assaulted him in the bush close to his homestead and he died during the assault. This militia gang linked to Olivia Muchena included, Washington Tikude, Enerst Masenda, Dickson Chibika, Tauya Mukanga, Samuel Kambanje and others. Witnesses reported that the group drove away in Olivia Muchena’s truck soon after the murder.

May 31, 2008

During the night of Saturday 31 May 2008 xxx and xxx  (A Headman) were shot to death at their homes by people who were reported to be CIO agents. The dead were described as Zanu PF local officials who had fallen off with Olivia Muchena and had defied her order to identify local MDC supporters who were supposed to be eliminated. Olivia Muchena is reported to have arrived at the scene of the murder the same night and ordered a quick burial of the two without any postmortem, her reason being that the party was to continue with the presidential campaign without delay. Relatives of the deceased defied Muchena, they took the dead to the district hospital for a postmortem and have long held strong suspicions that Muchena’s unusual behavior betrayed her involvement in the murder of their relatives.