WINDHOEK – A former Windhoek magistrate who is accused of raping two women between Windhoek Central and Katutura state hospitals suffered another legal blow when his appeal failed in the Windhoek High Court last week.
The accused, Jaco Kennedy, was pursuing a civil legal challenge in the High Court against a decision taken by the Office of the Prosecutor General to prosecute him. The prosecutor general decided to prosecute Kennedy on counts of rape and kidnapping.
On Friday, Acting High Court Judge Kobus Miller dismissed Kennedy’s appeal against the dismissal of his earlier application to have his criminal proceedings put on hold. The former magistrate wanted the High Court to give clarity on several questions around the prosecutor general’s duties with regard to making decisions on the prosecution of people alleged to have committed criminal offences.
According to Miller, Kennedy failed to convince the court that another court may arrive at a different conclusion and grant his request to have criminal proceedings put on hold for the time being.
“When summing up the totality of the evidence presented before me, I am not persuaded that the Supreme Court of Namibia may come up with a different conclusion in connection with the applicant’s request,” said Judge Miller when handing down judgement.
With his appeal dismissed, the High Court referred Kennedy’s case back for a pre-trial conference of case management for a new judge to be appointed to the case. The court gave a return date of August 15 for such.
Kennedy is currently in police custody, held at the Windhoek Central Correctional Facility’s trial-awaiting section since his arrest in January 2016 on the second rape charge with no option to post bail. It is alleged that in December 2015, Kennedy raped a woman in an area between the two hospitals.
Before his second arrest, Kennedy was out on bail of N$3 000 in connection with an incident in which he was charged alongside his cousin, Ray Cloete, for allegedly raping a woman they had offered a lift in January 2015.