Meshack Yebei puzzle might head to court

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of ICC witness Meshack Yebei could be headed to court as two families have threatened to sue the State.

They are both claiming the body believed to be that of their missing kin.

Mr Yebei’s family is waiting for DNA results from tests done on a corpse found in River Yala a week after he went missing.

The family of a matatu conductor, Mr Yusuf Hussein, also believes that the body lying at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret is that of their kin.

If results of the tests do not confirm the body as Mr Hussein’s, his family says it would to seek legal redress.

And a brother to the missing witness, Mr Ben Yebei, on Thursday said his family would ask the government to produce him.

“We have viewed the body keenly and the family is certain that it is that of our late brother.

“In case the DNA tests state otherwise, we shall petition the government to produce him,” he said.

On his part, Mr Hussein’s elder brother, Mr Abdi Shukir, said: “We shall file a case because, as a family, we have a right to know the whereabouts of our brother.”

He was speaking at their Sirwa home in Nandi County.

Mr Shukir said officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi took samples from the deceased’s two children on Wednesday.

Mr Shukir urged the State to speed up the tests so that they can quickly bury him according to Islamic rites.

“I was part of the group that identified Hussein’s body at the mortuary. We knew it is his since his right foot had a missing nail, he had a broken tooth and a scar under his nose,” Hussein’s second wife, Mercy Mmboga, said.

Mr Hussein, a father of two, who operated on the Kapsabet-Kisumu route, is said to have disappeared on December 26.

DNA test results are expected next week. Forensic tests indicated the fingerprints matched Mr Hussein.