BIKITA West MP Munyaradzi Kereke was yesterday challenged in the Harare Magistrates’ Court to prove that he was indeed in the United States when his two nieces were allegedly raped and indecently assaulted at his Vainona home in 2010.
Source: Kereke fails to prove US alibi – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 29, 2016
Under cross-examination by private prosecutor Charles Warara about where he was at the relevant times when the alleged offences were committed, Kereke, in his defence, said he was in the US for three months.
But Kereke, who is accused of raping and indecently assaulting his minor nieces, failed to prove his alibi under cross-examination.
Warara asked Kereke to show the court the US immigration department exit stamp to prove he left that country after his entry on March 2, 2010, which he failed.
“What is clear is I left Zimbabwe and returned and the stamps are there. I don’t work at the immigration to have asked them to make the stamps legible,” Kereke said.
Warara insisted on his question, but Kereke could not show the US exit stamp from his passport.
Warara said it was feasible that immigration stamps could be “illegally made” by criminals.
Kereke also denied he was a violent person, but was stopped dead in his tracks when Warara showed him evidence of a conviction for accidental discharge of a firearm in 2007.
Warara, using media reports and a police report, proved that Kereke was in 2007 involved in a gun incident at Flamboyant Hotel in Masvingo, where he allegedly threatened to shoot his estranged wife, Jocylene Karati, over a domestic dispute.
Karati was also a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe employee and they are now on separation.
Warara also pointed that in that same year, Kereke was allegedly involved in another gun incident at a nightclub, where he allegedly fired four shots in the air before he drove off.
Kereke was also at pains to prove his source of wealth as he owns three houses in Harare’s leafy suburbs, and a state-of-the-art hospital, among other things.
Kereke said he was earning $5 000 a month at the Reserve Bank post-dollarisation and he built his empire on bank loans, which were contracted on the basis of his goodwill and business profitability projections.
The MP, in his main defence through his lawyer Arum Mutandiro, said the charges were fabricated by his political enemies to curtail his political career after he left the central bank.
Regional magistrate Noel Mupeiwa is presiding over the trial.
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