Farmworker jailed over stepdaughter rape, murder

A FORMER Mariental area farmworker convicted of having raped and murdered his teenaged stepdaughter in September 2013 is going to prison for 32 years.

Two months after he was found guilty in the Windhoek High Court, David Kido (49) was yesterday sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for murder, with three years suspended for a period of five years. Kido was also handed a 12 year prison term for rape, with seven years to run concurrently with the murder sentence – leaving him with an effective jail term of 32 years.

Acting judge Boas Usiku also sentenced Kido to five years’ imprisonment on a charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and to two one-year jail terms on two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The sentences on those three charges would also run concurrently with the murder sentence, the judge ordered.

During his trial, Kido claimed he accidentally killed one of his stepdaughters, Izelda Kock (18), when he hit her on the side of the head with a knobkierie. He also admitted that he then tried to conceal the crime by burying her body, burning a bag with clothes belonging to her, and filing a missing person’s report with police.

Kock was killed at farm Jakkalsfontein between Mariental and Gibeon on 19 September 2013. Police officers found her partly naked body five days later, after Kido had pointed out the spot where he had buried her.

When he pointed out the burial spot, Kido told a police officer he had strangled Kock and struck her against the head with a piece of iron after he had raped her. Testimony from witnesses who told the court that he made similar admissions to another police officer, and told a traditional healer at Mariental that he had raped and murdered his stepdaughter and then buried her body, was also part of the evidence on which acting judge Usiku convicted Kido, after finding that the version he placed before the court could not be true.

The judge recounted yesterday that Kido and Kock were at a spot a few kilometres away from the house where they were staying at the farm when Kido suddenly grabbed Kock, removed her trousers, and raped her.

When she told Kido she would report the rape, he strangled her and struck her against the head with a piece of iron, before he buried her.

Kido had no justifiable reason to kill Kock, acting judge Usiku said. It was aggravating that the murder took place within a domestic context, and the sentence imposed on Kido should send a message that this type of crime would not be tolerated by the courts, the judge said.

Although Kido and Kock’s mother were not married, they lived together and had been in a relationship for eight years, and Kido told the court he had regarded Kock as his daughter.

The two assault charges on which Kido was convicted stem from an incident in August 2013, when he assaulted the late Kock and her younger sister by hitting them with a wooden fence pole after he found them trying to leave the farm for Mariental.

Kido attended his sentencing in a wheelchair yesterday. Part of his left leg was amputated while in custody.

Titus Mbaeva represented Kido during his trial. State advocate Cliff Lutibezi prosecuted.