Court Postpones sentencing For Kenya Rugby Players Convicted Of Rape

Image result for Frank Wanyama and Alex Olaba

The sentencing of One-Time Kenya Harlequins rugby players who featured in world rugby series, Frank Wanyama and his teammate Alex Olaba has been postponed to August 16 at 2 pm when the court will deliver the sentencing in a first-of-its-kind civil trial in Kenya.

Frank Wanyama and Alex Olaba were convicted of rape by a Nairobi court following a harrowing attack on a young upcoming female musician Wendy Kemunto.

The rape allegations first emerged on March 31, 2018, after the duo attended a birthday party in an apartment complex in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi for Wendy Kemunto. The allegations of rape surfaced days later after the birthday party when Kemunto took to her social media page account and in a long Instagram stories post, she accused the two rugby players of drugging her, luring her into one of their houses upon which they repeatedly raped her.Image

The victim, however, alleges that she went to a hospital the next morning, but did not report the incident to the police, not until a test showed she was pregnant. In the victim’s police statement, Kemunto claimed that before she took to social media to expose the ordeal, she tried to confront Wanyama with the allegations, but he dismissed her telling “to go look for a lawyer should she decide to go public”.

What nailed the two was a recording they did for the entire ordeal, and when they learnt that the victim was planning to seek legal redress, they deleted the video recordings.

During the ruling, Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku said she read guilt on the two rugby players for deleting the alleged recording of them sexually assaulting the woman.

Wanyama and Olaba were named All-Pro by fans and were chosen for the world series tournaments during a career that included stints with the Kenya Harlequin FC but were suspended by the club in 2018 till the investigations concluded.

 

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