Iuze Mukube
Windhoek High Court Judge Claudia Claasen on Friday described arson as a cowardly and premeditated manner of killing.
She was delivering sentence to Mecthilde Karomo who received an effective 35 years imprisonment for deliberately setting fire to a shack, resulting in the deaths of two people.
Judge Claasen said the offence is particularly cowardly and premeditated because the perpetrator does not physically confront the victim, but instead exposes them to potentially fatal harm.
“Arson is universally regarded as a very serious offence because it involves the deliberate use of fire, an inherently uncontrollable and destructive force, to damage or destroy property and often to endanger human life,” she added.
She also noted that the offence was committed in an informal settlement, where shacks and dwellings are built in close proximity, and where access to emergency services is limited.
“In such an environment, a single fire can very easily spread from one structure to the next, placing many households and their inhabitants at risk of injury or death,” she stated.
Claasen found that the accused caused the deaths of two people, Leonard Haupindi Kadubuli (36) and Anastacia Ihemba Matende (31), by burning.
Post-mortem findings included third and fourth degree burns, charring of the bodies, soot in the airways, cherry-red discolouration of the internal organs, heat fractures in long bones and missing body parts.
“This court can hardly imagine the excruciating pain and associated processes that the deceased suffered as their organs and bodies succumbed to the fire,” she said.
She added that the accused’s moral blameworthiness is aggravated by the cruelty and gravity of her actions and her utter indifference after setting the dwelling alight.
By her own admission, Karomo was home, listening to music nonchalantly.
“It was not just indifference to the sanctity of life, but also to the risk and danger that such a fire posed to the surrounding houses in Okahandja Park, which were built close together,” Claasen further found. Both deceased left behind minor children, who must grow up without the care and support of their parents.
Claasen said the ripple effect of the accused’s conduct extends far beyond the immediate victims, and will be felt for many years in the lives of these children and their extended families.
Matende left behind four children, while Kadubuli was a father of six.
She also held that genuine remorse is not established merely by regret over a conviction or the prospect of imprisonment.
“It requires a deep moral discomfort demonstrated through personal acknowledgement of wrongdoing and its impact on victims and society,” she said.
The judge found that, because the accused did not testify and offered no explanation, insight or apology from which her inner attitude could be assessed, the court could not find genuine remorse.
She also found that the compensation said to have been paid to relatives of the deceased persons, in the amount of N$77 000, cannot be elevated to proof of genuine contribution.
Claasen dismissed the argument that a conviction based on dolus eventualis automatically amounts to diminished moral culpability and warrant a lesser sentence.
“Those who trample on the rights of others must face the consequences of the law,” she stated.
Karomo was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment on the first count of murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act.
A further 32 years was imposed on the second count of murder, with this sentence ordered to run concurrently with the first murder charge. She was also sentenced to three years imprisonment on the arson count, which was also read with the Combating of the Domestic Violence Act.
In total, Karomo will serve an effective term of 35 years imprisonment. The sentence stems from an incident in which Karomo, acting out of jealousy and anger, set fire to the shack of her boyfriend, Kadubuli, after discovering another woman, Matende, inside on 26 December 2022 in Windhoek’s Okahandja Park.
Evidence before court showed that she threatened to burn the house on 25 December 2022 if the other woman remained inside.
Karomo was represented by Mbanga Siyomunji and the State by Dominic Lisulo.