If body is Yusuf's, where is Yebei?

ELDORET: The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a man Deputy President William Ruto described as his 'critical witness' at the International Criminal Court (ICC) deepened after the body thought to be his turned out to be someone else's.

Thursday, police revealed DNA tests had shown that the body that was being contested by two families in Eldoret belongs to Yusuf Hussein, a matatu tout, from Chepsonoi in Nandi County.

The announcement by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) meant that Meshack Yebei,  who disappeared on December 28, last year, and who has been a subject of bitter exchanges between Ruto's defence and ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, is presumed still missing.

Police handling the case reported the DNA results showed 99 per cent it was Yusuf's body but Yebei's family responded they would be guided by independent DNA tests from samples they sent to South Africa.

"The results are out and the families have been informed for now. CID headquarters will give you more details but it is Yusuf's," explained an investigator from CID headquarters John Kariuki, who is leading the probe.

CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro had told The Standard: "Results have shown 99 per cent it is Yusuf. We still do not know where Yebei is," Muhoro said, adding they trust the tests because they are "scientifically reliable".

"We treat the case of Yebei as that of a missing person and efforts to trace him are ongoing," the CID boss went on.

But although Yusuf's body was interred in Eldoret a few minutes to 6pm in line with Islamic faith, shortly after the police released it to his family, the controversy is far from over because Yebei's family maintain the man who was buried is their kin.

Hours after the DNA results from the Government chemist confirmed that the body at Moi Teaching and Referral Mortuary belonged to Yusuf, Yebei's family led by his wife Lilian, and mother Priscillah disputed the verdict.

The family explained they will await independent DNA results from South Africa. "We shall not be convinced by results that the body does not belong to Yebei. It is his and we still maintain so," said the mother of three.

"If the body is not that of my husband as the CID claim, then where is he and why has the Government been slow in solving the mystery? Even if the other family takes the body and our private DNA tests proves it is Yebei's, we shall exhume it," said Lilian.

ABDUCTION THREAT

The disappearance and subsequent finding of a body that was presumed to be that of Yebei sparked angry exchanges between Bensouda and Ruto's lawyer Karim Khan. Jubilee MPs were also sucked into the dispute, with Majority Leader Aden Duale claiming the ICC prosecutor and activist Ken Wafula, a vocal supporter of the ICC, had a hand in the death. Both Wafula and Bensouda denied the allegations.

"The Office of the Prosecutor wishes to categorically state that any suggestion that the office was involved in Mr Yebei's alleged abduction and murder is both outrageous and utterly false. Nothing could be further from the truth," Bensouda said in a statement.

She explained that during the course of the Prosecution's investigations, Yebei was among those contacted by the Office of the Prosecutor. "However, Mr Yebei was ultimately not included on the Prosecution's list of trial witnesses due to, among other reasons, information indicating that Mr Yebei was deeply implicated in the scheme to corrupt Prosecution witnesses in the case against Mr Ruto and (journalist Joshua) Sang."

Khan claimed a prosecution witness had threatened Yebei. "The defence has learned the prosecution was fully on notice, months before the alleged abduction and murder of Yebei, that he had been threatened with abduction by one of the prosecution's witnesses," he said.

Khan had said in a press conference in Nairobi two weeks ago that Yebei was their "critical witness" and asked the CID to properly investigate his disappearance.

"Mr Yebei was a critical witness to the defence and because of this and the risk we believe he faced, we had referred him to the ICC Victims and Witness Unit for protection," Khan said over the news of Yebei's apparent abduction.

"It's our strongly held view that an attack on any witness constitutes an interference with the proper administration of justice and indeed an attack against William Ruto," Khan charged.

Yebei was allegedly abducted and went missing on December 28 last year in Turbo Uasin Gishu County. The abduction and the subsequent disappearance of Yebei has raised more questions than answers.

Earlier, the ICC Registry noted that it had offered Yebei security measures, including a safe residency in a new location, but he returned to Eldoret where the incident took place.

The Hague-based court later accused him of attempting to bribe its other witnesses to stop testifying.

The enigmatic question that continues to linger is, where is Meshack Yebei? Is he dead and his body lying somewhere? Is he with 'Patrick and Lugusa' - the two men he alleged to be with in Uganda - in SMS his family received after he vanished? Or is he being held incommunicado? Or perhaps he is comfortable somewhere watching his alleged abduction and disappearance saga from a corner of this earth?

Efforts by The Standard to contact the Uganda office to confirm whether Patrick and Lugusa were indeed in their officers were futile, the Ugandan phone number that Yebei is alleged to have used does not go through and an email to the ICC field office in Uganda from The Standard journalists was not replied.

What has compounded the mystery is a recent claim by two boda boda riders who sought anonymity and told The Standard that they knew where Yebei lived in Eldoret.

"We are wondering why you always report that he disappeared, we have seen him around for a number of days," claimed one of the Boda boda rider. His colleague agreed with him and said they had even seen him last Saturday. "That is the last time I saw him, he normally carries a bag. I have carried him on my motorcycle twice since you people reported he had disappeared," said one of the riders. But we could not immediately verify the claims.

Kariuki insisted that they would continue with the investigation until they unravel the mystery.