Francis Kean

Who is Francis Kean?

Francis Kean was the Commander of the Fijian Navy when, in 2006, he was charged with murder. He was convicted of manslaughter the following year.

Kean, whose brother-in-law, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, is the Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces and was Interim Prime Minister at the time of these events, was arrested on 6 January 2006 and charged with the murder of salesman John Whippy at the Royal Suva Yacht Club, after a wedding reception for Whippy's nephew Samuel Whippy and his bride, Ateca Bainimarama, the Prime Minister's daughter, on 31 December 2006, the Fiji Sun reported. Kean had punched and kicked John Whippy following the latter's drunken insults against him. The attack resulted in Whippy's death.

He appeared in Suva Magistrate's Court on 19 January and was remanded in custody at Korovou Prison till 2 February. Magistrate John Semesi refused a request from Kean's lawyer, Abhay Singh, for bail, after Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Raymond Gibson said that Kean would be in a position to interfere with witnesses. He also refused a request for Kean to be detained at a military barracks. Lawyer Singh had claimed that Kean's life could be endangered if he were to be detained at Korovou, as Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit soldiers, whom Kean had helped prosecute for an army mutiny in 2000, were imprisoned there.