By 
Once a respected top law enforcement officer, former Deputy Inspector General of Police, Charity Katanga, was on Monday led away by prison officers to begin her three-year jail sentence after the High Court upheld her conviction for possessing property deemed to be proceeds of crime.
At the centre of the case were 10 luxurious Higer buses worth over K26 million, assets the court ruled were acquired through unexplained means far exceeding her known income.
A panel of High Court judges sitting as the Economic and Financial Crimes Court comprising Justices Susan Wanjelani, Pixie Yangailo, and Anna Malata-Ononuju dismissed Katanga’s appeal, stating that the lower court was justified in convicting her and ordering the forfeiture of her assets to the State.
“The disparity between her income and the properties she possessed was too wide to ignore,” the bench found, noting that Katanga failed to present credible documents such as bank statements or loan agreements to prove lawful ownership of the buses.
The court also upheld the ruling that under the law, property may be deemed “tainted” and subject to forfeiture even without a conviction for a specific predicate offence, so long as there is sufficient evidence linking it to criminal activity. In this case, the court determined that only K100,000 of the funds used to purchase the buses could be traced to legitimate sources, with the rest remaining unexplained.
In March 2024, Lusaka Chief Resident Magistrate, Davies Chibwili, had sentenced Katanga after finding her guilty of possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The court heard that between January 1, 2017, and June 6, 2022, Katanga, acting jointly with others, acquired the 10 Higer buses operating under a company called Chibeka Express using funds inconsistent with her declared income.
The magistrate found that while her total known income between 2017 and 2021 was just over K1.7 million, she spent over K18 million on the buses alone.
Katanga had maintained her innocence, claiming that part of the funds came from an insurance payout following an accident involving one of the buses. However, the court ruled that the insurance proceeds themselves were linked to a bus whose purchase had no proven legal source, making the payout similarly tainted.
She was initially granted K100,000 bail pending appeal, but following the dismissal of her case, her sentence began immediately.
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