HARARE – Child rapist Munyaradzi Kereke is still a free man days after he lost appeal against his conviction at the Supreme Court.
Kereke, who was out on bail pending appeal before the top court’s May 31 judgement, should have surrendered himself to prison authorities to serve the final 20 months of a 10-year prison sentence.
ZimLive has established that as of Sunday, the former Bikita West MP 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 where he was serving his sentence 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 that obligation to arrest him… He has to surrender himself and if he doesn’t he must be arrested and taken in.”
Kereke was convicted of rape by Harare magistrate Noel Mupeiwa in 2016 after Warara proved that he raped his 11-year-old niece between March and August 2010 after threatening her with a gun. He was jailed for an effective 10 years.
He appealed against the sentence but lost at the High Court, before mounting the Supreme Court appeal.
On May 31, Supreme Court judges of appeal Samuel Kudya, Tendai Uchena and George Chiweshe rejected his appeal.
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.”
