MPs demand life for child rapists

FEMALE parliamentarians yesterday demanded that the two men accused of raping and killing a two-year-old girl at Khorixas over the weekend be sent to jail for life, if found guilty.

Expressing “disgust and dismay” at Saturday’s brutal incident at the western town, the all-party Parliamentarian Women Caucus also called for life imprisonment for people convicted of raping a child below the age of five years. The female MPs are also campaigning for prison sentences of not less than 50 years for people who rape children aged five and above.”It (the Khorixas incident) makes me sick.These people [suspects] if found guilty should go for life …it should be a must,” Health and Social Services Minister Libertina Amathila said in the National Assembly yesterday.Amathila was conveying to the House a decision taken on Monday of the Parliamentarian Women Caucus meeting called to discuss escalating acts of sexual assault against infants.Leader of the DTA-UDF coalition, Katuutire Kaura, gave notice that he would today move that the Assembly discuss and make recommendations to the Minister of Justice with a view to increasing the sentence for the rape of a child under the age of 10 years to life imprisonment.Kaura said this would deter “would-be rapists”.* Yesterday Police identified the two men accused of raping and murdering the baby at Khorixas on Saturday.Samuel Uiseb (33) and Johannes Rico Goseb (22) appeared in the Khorixas Magistrate’s Court on Monday on rape and murder charges.The little girl was found in a riverbed about 400 metres from her home.It is believed she was kidnapped from her mother’s shack.The female MPs are also campaigning for prison sentences of not less than 50 years for people who rape children aged five and above.”It (the Khorixas incident) makes me sick.These people [suspects] if found guilty should go for life …it should be a must,” Health and Social Services Minister Libertina Amathila said in the National Assembly yesterday.Amathila was conveying to the House a decision taken on Monday of the Parliamentarian Women Caucus meeting called to discuss escalating acts of sexual assault against infants.Leader of the DTA-UDF coalition, Katuutire Kaura, gave notice that he would today move that the Assembly discuss and make recommendations to the Minister of Justice with a view to increasing the sentence for the rape of a child under the age of 10 years to life imprisonment.Kaura said this would deter “would-be rapists”.* Yesterday Police identified the two men accused of raping and murdering the baby at Khorixas on Saturday.Samuel Uiseb (33) and Johannes Rico Goseb (22) appeared in the Khorixas Magistrate’s Court on Monday on rape and murder charges.The little girl was found in a riverbed about 400 metres from her home.It is believed she was kidnapped from her mother’s shack.