By Anna Shilongo
WINDHOEK
The Kenyan High Commissioner to Namibia Rose Boit has expressed disappointment in the unscheduled re-appearance of the Kenyan nurse, 34-year-old Kenneth Orina, who is accused of murdering his 32-year-old wife Rose Kiplangat about two months ago in Grootfontein.
Boit said her office was surprised to hear that the suspect reappeared in court without their knowledge.
“I feel it was important for our office to be informed that the suspect was going to reappear, in order for us to send a representative to court. As far as we are concerned, Orina’s case was postponed to next year February,” she said during an interview with New Era last week.
Boit said the family of the suspect was busy preparing to come to Namibia to identify a possible legal representative since he opted for private legal representation.
The High Commissioner is responsible for locating the suspect’s family back home in Kenya to attend to the suspect’s request.
“We do not know under what circumstances the confession was made because no one from the family neither our office was present at court,” said the high commissioner.
It was reported in the local media that Orina made an unannounced appearance in the Grootfontein Magistrates’ Court last week Monday.
It is reported that the suspect appeared before Magistrate Leopold Hangalo, where he made his plea. It is further reported that Orina had said that the killing of his wife was accidental rather than planned and intentional.
He apparently admitted that he had killed his wife at Grootfontein State Hospital nurses’ home where they lived, and that he had cut the body into several parts and disposed of them between September 13 and 17.
The suspect apparently pleaded guilty to three charges – of murder, defeating the cause of justice and violating a dead human body.
Spokesperson of the Namibian police, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, confirmed the rescheduled appearance of Orina.
” Yes he appeared, and it’s part and parcel of the investigation – legally it is supposed to be like that. There is nothing wrong with his plea,” said Amulungu.
Meanwhile, New Era was informed that Orina’s wife was supposed to start work this month as a health worker in Namibia.
According to a close source, Orina and his wife were experiencing marital problems for quite a while. Orina had also made a request to the hospital superintendent to send his wife back home but he later reversed his request, claiming that they had resolved their problems. His wife is reported to have been very jealous.
Orina is suspected to be the mastermind behind the disappearance of his wife, as well as the killer of the woman whose remains were found dumped in the Grootfontein area early September.
Dismembered body parts of a woman were found in black plastic bags in Grootfontein in September, and were initially wrongly identified as those of Jacoba Wilma Olivier.
Orina worked at the Grootfontein State Hospital and came into the country through the recruitment exercise of Kenyan nurses between the Namibian and Kenyan governments. He has been in state employment for several months.
Orina and his wife were in and out of the Grootfontein police station with complaints in July. She apparently complained that her husband would at times strangle her at night while she slept, using hand gloves.
She apparently appealed for protection from the police but when she was advised to lay a charge against her husband, she never came back to the station.
A reliable source also revealed that during the arrest of Orina, pieces of theatre equipment that are not supposed to leave the theatre were found in his locker at work.
Orina made his first appearance in the Grootfontein Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.
His case was remanded to February 14 next year, pending further investigations and to allow him to secure legal representation.