Family claims dead kin found in mortuary was an ICC witness

Kenya: The body of a man whose family members say was a witness at the International Criminal Court was on Friday found at the Kapsabet County Referral Hospital’s mortuary.

Meshack Yebei, 34, mysteriously disappeared last Sunday after he had escorted his wife and their sick child to a health centre in Turbo, Uasin Gishu County.

His family had been worried, even after they receiving text messages to the effect that Yebei was with ICC officials.

“My husband and I had taken our child to hospital in Turbo Town at around midday on Sunday. On reaching the hospital, the baby started vomiting, and my husband went to buy some drinking water as we waited for medication, but he never back,” Lillian Yebei, Meshack’s wife, said in an earlier interview.

In an interesting twist, his relatives claimed that Meshack’s mother and friend had received similar text messages from a number bearing a foreign country code linking the missing man to the ICC.

A text message seen by the The Standard on Sunday alleged that Meshack was with an ICC official in a neighbouring country: “I believe you are okay, I have gone to ...... urgently, I am with Bensouda’s experts namely ........., I am okay, don’t worry about me, Meshack, This is my number ........”

Nickson Yebei, a brother of the deceased, said they had been called by the hospital’s management concerning unidentified body.

“We had been looking for Meshack since Sunday, and after exhausting all the possible channels, we notified hospitals and mortuaries and ave them his details,” said Nickson. “Hospital officials told us the body was brought to the facility on December 31 by police officers who said it was found on the banks of River Yala in Nandi. It was badly disfigured, with wounds on the head.” Lillian said her husband has been receiving threats from unknown callers since September, and had even recorded a statement with the police in Eldoret.