MP jailed for calling Mugabe gay finally released
MUTARE- The MDC-T legislator for Chimanimani West, Lynnette Karenyi, has been freed after spending Christmas in jail for allegedly saying President Robert Mugabe is “a gay who sleeps around with (former information minister) Jonathan Moyo.”
Karenyi is said to have made the comments at a rally on the 9th of December at Nhedziwa football grounds in Chimanimani, but was only arrested on the 19th December. Karenyi, who is also the MDC-T Women’s Assembly organizing secretary, denies the charge.
The state media is claiming she said “Zanu PF members have been attacking MDC president Tsvangirai alleging he is pro-homosexuals yet Robert Mugabe has practised homosexuality with Jonathan Moyo and Canaan Banana.”
State prosecutors used controversial legislation to suspend for 7 days the US$300 bail given to her by Mutare magistrate Noah Gwatidzo. Even though the magistrate ruled that, “the state seeks to punish the accused before trial and before conviction” Karenyi still spent Christmas in prison.
Mugabe in the past has said gay people are “worse than pigs or dogs” but evidence over the years has exposed many senior officials in his party as gay or having engaged in various acts of sodomy.
Former president Canaan Banana for example was convicted by a court of eleven sodomy charges following allegations he had used his presidential powers to coerce men into sexual relations. Banana served six months of a ten year suspended sentence in an open prison before he died in 2003. Nehanda Radio.com
