Jail time for farmer who shot poacher

THE fatal shooting of a poacher near the end of January 2016 has left Okahandja area farmer Kai Rust with an effective prison term of three years.

Having already spent a year and five months in custody before being granted bail, Rust (45) heard in the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday that he will have to return to jail to serve a term of three years’ imprisonment.

Magistrate Alexis Diergaardt sentenced Rust to five years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for a period of five years on condition that he is not convicted of culpable homicide committed during the period of suspension.

He was sentenced two weeks after magistrate Diergaardt acquitted him on a charge of murder and three counts of attempted murder, but convicted him of culpable homicide.

Rust was prosecuted after a poacher, Andreas Ukandanga (41), died of a gunshot injury at the farm of Rust’s father north-east of Okahandja on 27 January 2016.

Ukandanga, who was trespassing on the farm in the company of three fellow poachers, was struck by a ricochet bullet. He and his companions were skinning a kudu they had killed on the farm, where poachers and livestock thieves had been a recurrent problem in the past, when Rust fired the shot that ended up killing him.

Rust told the court during his trial that he did not see any people when he fired the shot in the direction of a dog he had found on the farm. After the shot, he saw three people running away, and it was after he had fired two warning shots and then shot a dog that was still on the scene that he found the fatally injured Ukandanga lying behind a rock, where the kudu was being slaughtered, he recounted.

In the judgement she delivered on 2 February, magistrate Diergaardt found that while Rust did not have an intention to kill someone when he fired the shot that struck Ukandanga, he was negligent in shooting in the direction of a dog in a situation where he could foresee the possibility that there could be people nearby.

During the sentencing on Friday, she remarked that it could not be allowed in Namibia that people, because of frustration about poaching and theft, do not take the necessary care when they decide to shoot.

One could not argue that the life of a person who was a poacher was worth less than the life of someone else, she also said, adding that Ukandanga’s family would never be able to see him again, and his children would never be able to touch their father again. The seriousness of the offence of which he was convicted outweighed his personal circumstances, she told Rust.

Before the sentence was handed down, defence counsel Jan Wessels argued that Rust had a right to protect his family’s property when he fired the shot that ended up hitting Ukandanga. He also argued that Ukandanga and his accomplices knew they were committing a crime when they went to the Rust farm to poach, but that they nevertheless decided to take the risk of trespassing on the farm.

Wessels further argued that, having already been in custody for a year and five months before he was released on bail, Rust did not deserve to be sentenced to an additional period of imprisonment. He suggested that the magistrate sentence his client to pay a fine, coupled with a term of imprisonment suspended in full.

Public prosecutor Filemon Nyau argued that Rust had been convicted of a serious offence involving the taking of a human life. He suggested that a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment, of which two years are suspended, would be appropriate.

Wessels said on enquiry yesterday that he had not yet received instructions from his client about a possible appeal against the sentence.