Former Windhoek-based magistrate Jaco Kennedy on trial in the High Court for allegedly raping two women in 2015, has suffered a heavy blow when the court refused to release him on bail yesterday.
Kennedy’s formal bail application was dismissed in a ruling (judgement) handed down by High Court Judge Marlene Tommasi yesterday morning.

“The applicant- Jaco Kennedy- is not a suitable candidate for release on bail because he has a serious pending case of alleged rape before the High Court. In the result, the applicant cannot be granted bail. The applicant’s formal bail application is, therefore, dismissed,” said Judge Tommasi when delivering her judgement yesterday morning.

In her submissions during the hearing of the failed bail bid, State Advocate Innocentia Nyoni also asked for dismissal of the bail application, saying Kennedy should not be released on bail because he faces very serious charges of raping two women on different occasions.

One of the alleged rape incidents occurred when the arrested former magistrate was free on bail.

In his failed bail bid, Kennedy unsuccessfully wanted the Windhoek High Court to grant bail because he feels he has been held in custody for too long, having been housed at the Windhoek Central Correctional Facility without an option to post bail since his arrest on the alleged two rape charges in January 2016.

State-funded defence lawyer Boris Isaacks represented Kennedy in the failed bail attempt.

In the main matter, the 32-year-old Kennedy faces three counts of rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice in connection with the alleged rape of two women in January 2015 and December 2015 in an area between the Windhoek Central Hospital and Katutura State Hospital.

He is charged in this matter alongside his cousin Raymond Cloete, 33, who faces two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping.

Kennedy was out on bail of N$3 000 in connection with the first incident in which he is charged with Cloete, for allegedly raping a woman they offered a lift to in January 2015.

He was, however, arrested again in January 2016 for allegedly raping another woman on 31 December 2015, also in an area between the two hospitals as with the first incident.

Government-funded defence lawyers Isaacks and Milton Engelbrecht will defend the two accused men when the trial properly starts in the High Court in the next few months.

Cloete is free on a warning.

-Nampa