Two Prosecuted For Consensual Sex in Namibia

In Namibia, adults are getting prison sentences for having sex with each other.

Reverend Veikko Nambala Shiimi, whose baby daughter, mothered by his daughter, turns one year today, has been sentenced to four years in jail for incest.

Nowhere in the article does it indicate that there is any problem with the child, by the way, and I would think they would include that if there was.

The Okahao Magistrate's Court recently sentenced Shiimi (70), a retired pastor, to a four-year imprisonment term after it emerged he had been having a sexual relationship with his 36 year-old daughter.

Shiimi, a well-known retired pastor and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN)'s church council based at Onaanda congregation in the Omusati Region, and his daughter Katrina Shiimi, were recently found guilty of incest in Okahao Magistrate's Court.

Shiimi was sentenced to four years in prison, of which two years were suspended, while Katrina was sentenced to two years suspended jail term, on condition that she is not convicted of a similar act for the next five years.

While I find it ridiculous that they were prosecuted at all, I wonder why she was given a lighter sentence? Isn’t it possible that he'd old enough now that the “balance of power” has shifted to her being more powerful?

The two were involved in a father-and-daughter sexual relationship since 2007 until March 2010, when Shiimi's wife, who is also Katrina's mother, caught them in the act.

The woman allegedly went to report the matter to the police, resulting in the arrest of her husband and daughter.

She probably had her suspicions already. Everyone who says the laws against consensual incest don’t need to change because “who is going to know?” should note things like this. People find out, even when the participants are not cheating.

He may have acted against what his church teaches or he himself taught in church (perhaps that is a reason why he retired), and he may have been cheating, but this should not have been a criminal matter. I don’t advocate cheating, but I have no idea what his legal marriage was like and if that was still intact when he and his 30-something daughter started up. You’d never see in an article like this if he’d been sexually rejected by his wife for the last 30 years or if his wife has had an affair, although I’m certainly not making those allegations against her. She could very well be a completely innocent victim who gave, and expected, a monogamous commitment.

To me, the important thing about all of this is that law enforcement is doing more harm than good. If the wife wanted out, that is where the law should be involved. But otherwise, it should have been a private matter.