Chronicle Editor
Fidelis Munyoro, Harare Bureau
FORMER Bikita West legislator Munyaradzi Kereke is back in prison after the Supreme Court yesterday confirmed his conviction and an effective 10-year jail term for raping a juvenile relative.
Kereke was out on $500 000 bail pending his appeal against both conviction and sentence. He had 20 months to serve when he successfully appealed for bail to prosecute his appeal out of custody in August 2021.
Kereke, a former adviser to ex-Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, was in July 2016 convicted of raping his then 10-year-old relative at gunpoint and jailed for 14 years. Four years of his jail time was suspended on condition of good behaviour. He was also acquitted on another charge of indecently assaulting the rape victim’s elder sister.
Yesterday, a three-judge panel of Justice Tendai Uchena, Justice Samuel Kudya and Justice George Chiweshe unanimously agreed to confirm the conviction and sentence imposed on Kereke.
Writing the judgment, Justice Kudya dismissed all the five grounds of appeal by Kereke. The five grounds of appeal against conviction cumulatively assail the propriety of the conviction.
It was argued that the trial court failed to apply the correct test in assessing Kereke’s defence of an alibi, and in doing so failed to take into cognisance the fact that the prosecution led no rebuttal evidence.
But the judge ruled that the complainant was the primary witness, whose testimony passed the requisite threshold of credibility set out in case law. This, Justice Kudya said, was supported especially by medical evidence and the deliberate lies that were propagated by Kereke and his witnesses.
“We are, therefore, satisfied that the defence of an alibi was properly disproved and shown to be false beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.
“Similarly, the prosecution established beyond reasonable doubt that all the defence witnesses were coached by the appellant. The defence of an alibi and the other exculpatory evidence of the defence witnesses were clearly shown not only to be reasonably untrue, but also to be palpably false.”
The matter proceeded by way of a private prosecution by Mr Munyaradzi Maramwidze in his capacity as the guardian of the complainant. The private prosecution prevailed against indomitable hurdles placed in its way by a generally lacklustre investigation by the police.
It also overcame the spirited refusal by then Prosecutor-General, the late Johannes Tomana, to prosecute Kereke and his unlawful refusal to issue a certificate nolle prosequi (not wish to prosecute), to Mr Maramwidze.
The requisite certificate constitutes a condition precedent for the institution of a private prosecution by a private party imbued with a substantial and peculiar interest in the matter. In addition, Kereke fervently fought to avoid the institution of private prosecution that was stopped by the Constitutional Court.
By the time the private prosecution commenced in earnest, a period of five years had lapsed from the time the alleged offence was committed.
In its judgment yesterday, the Supreme Court noted that the record of proceedings showed that after the allegations came to light, under the guise of fighting corruption, Kereke, in person or by proxy, embarked on a no holds barred crusade against senior Zanu-PF politicians, his former boss and ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the former director of the RBZ’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation and one of his divisional directors.
The record, Justice Kudya said, further showed that Kereke also levelled unfounded and unproven allegations of misconduct against anyone he perceived to be working with the complainant, including one David Butau, Mr Maramwidze and his wife and the private prosecutor.
“It must be recorded, in his favour, that the record further shows that he flighted in the public print media, a public apology to his former boss and RBZ Governor after his conviction by the trial court,” said Justice Kudya.
Online Reporter