Ball in police court to find vanished man
Mr Meshack Yebei. Doctors at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital are reported to have identified the body of Meshack Yebei. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
What you need to know:
- Mr Yebei went missing last month. He had taken his child to a dispensary in Turbo trading centre and excused himself to buy water for him before he disappeared. It is believed he was abducted by people in two cars.
- Tests carried out at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary in Eldoret Wednesday identified the body as that of Mr Yusuf Hussein, a matatu tout and a father of two.
- Mr Ruto’s lawyer, Mr Karim Khan, on Tuesday said Mr Yebei was a defence witness and that he had received death threats from a prosecution witness.
So, just where is Meshack Yebei? Is he dead or is he alive?
These are the critical questions that the public expects the police to answer after they said yesterday that fingerprints of the dead man initially believed to be the International Criminal Court witness, did not match.
That meant that the whereabouts of Mr Yebei, whom Deputy President William Ruto claims is his witness in the ICC case, remain unknown.
Mr Yebei went missing last month. He had taken his child to a dispensary in Turbo trading centre and excused himself to buy water for him before he disappeared. It is believed he was abducted by people in two cars.
ELIMINATE DOUBT
Tests carried out at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary in Eldoret Wednesday identified the body as that of Mr Yusuf Hussein, a matatu tout and a father of two.
Police are now conducting further tests to eliminate all doubts as to the identity of the body claimed by the two families, one Christian and the other Muslim.
Mr Ruto’s lawyer, Mr Karim Khan, on Tuesday said Mr Yebei was a defence witness and that he had received death threats from a prosecution witness.
He was responding to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who had said that Mr Yebei was not a prosecution witness.
“We have information indicating that Mr Yebei was deeply implicated in the scheme to corrupt prosecution witnesses,” Ms Bensouda had said in an earlier statement.
According to Mr Khan, Yebei first made contact with Mr Ruto’s defence team in July 2013.
ALLEGATIONS
Later, when Mr Yebei was already a defence witness, Mr Khan said, the prosecution contacted and interviewed him without the knowledge of the defence team over allegations that he was involved in witness interference.
Mr Khan also said that Mr Yebei was taken to a third country for questioning, but he denied the allegations levelled against him.
“I acknowledge and applaud his willingness to engage with the Defence and with the ICC process,” Mr Khan had said in his statement.
“Indeed, he requested that he be allowed to testify in a public session at the appropriate time, in order that Kenyans may hear the truth about this case.”
