Munyaradzi Kereke has been granted $500 000 bail by the Supreme Court pending appeal against both conviction and a 14-year jail term for raping his niece at gunpoint.
Kereke, who is a former Bikita West legislator, was serving ten years effective after he was caged by Harare magistrate Noel Mupeiwa in 2016 for raping his then 11-year-old niece.
The controversial businessman, politician and former was adviser toformer Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono.
He is a member of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) until 2013 when he was fired from the party and he was readmitted in 2014.
On 11 July 2016, Kereke was sentenced to an effective 10 years in prison for raping a minor in 2010. He is currently serving his prison term at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
Rape Case, Conviction and Sentencing
He allegedly raped a girl aged 11 at gun point in August 2010. The girl was alleged to have been his third’s wife niece. Police records and all medical colluded in confirming the crime .
The Zimbabwe Republic Police which had come under fire for failure to investigate the case blamed the Attorney General’s office for the delay in prosecution.
The police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri said that the attorney general’s office refused to prosecute after he had submitted a complete docket to the AG’s office.
The AG at the time was Johannes Tomana. According to the law, where the National Prosecuting Authority declines to prosecute, it is required to issue a certificate stating their unwillingness to prosecute.
This certificate provides the legal basis for the aggrieved party to pursue a private prosecution. The NPA however did not to issue the certificate.
The family of the minor then took the matter to the High Court, where the judge ordered Tomana to issue the certificate. However, Tomana disregarded the order and instead, launched a constitutional application to the Constitutional Court, where he sought to have the law compelling him to issue a certificate to open the way for private prosecutions declared unconstitutional. He argued that it interfered with his discretion.
The Constitutional Court dismissed his case and instead, found him to be in contempt of court for refusing to issue the certificate as previously directed. The Court slapped him with a 30-day jail term but it was suspended for 10 days during which he was supposed to comply or face jail. Tomana complied and that opened the path for the rape survivor’s family to commence private prosecution proceedings.
