Former Bikita West MP, Munyaradzi Kereke, was still a free man days after he lost an appeal against his conviction at the Supreme Court for raping a child.
The former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) advisor was out of custody on ZWL$500 000 bail pending his appeal against both conviction and sentence.
After the top court’s May 31 judgement, Kereke should have surrendered himself to prison authorities to serve the final 20 months of a 10-year prison sentence.
According to ZimLive, as of Sunday, Kereke was still enjoying the comfort of his home.
Charles Warara, the private prosecutor who pursued Kereke after the National Prosecuting Authority refused to take up the rape case, said police must arrest him and deliver him to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
Kereke was serving his jail term at Chikurubi before he was released on bail pending appeal in 2021. Warara told ZimLive:
His lawyer called me and said his client has a commercial case in the High Court on Monday and is to appear for trial and was requesting if he can check in to prison after.
This is what I understand as the reason his lawyer gave. This is not to say we agreed but we cannot do anything to force him into prison because we have done our part.
The police have an obligation to arrest him… He has to surrender himself and if he doesn’t he must be arrested and taken in.
Kereke was found guilty of rape by Harare magistrate Noel Mupeiwa in 2016 after Warara proved that he raped his then 11-year-old niece between March and August 2010. Kereke raped the minor at gunpoint.
He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment but four years of his jail term were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
He then appealed against the sentence but lost at the High Court, before mounting the Supreme Court appeal.
On May 31, 2024, a three-judge panel of Justices Tendai Uchena, Samuel Kudya, and George Chiweshe unanimously agreed to confirm the conviction and sentence imposed on Kereke. The judges said:
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 the Prosecutor General [Johannes Tomana] to prosecute Kereke and his unlawful refusal to issue a certificate nolle prosequi, to the victim.
