Probe: Family of dead Ugandan medic volunteer DNA samples

Dr Gideon Wamasebu. He went missing nine days ago from his Mbale home in Uganda. [File, Standard]

The family of a Ugandan medic who was on Monday found buried along River Isiukhu banks in Malava constituency has confirmed that the body was indeed that of their kin.

Dr Dickson Muchana of Kakamega said preliminary findings show the body of Dr Gideon Wamasebu, who went missing nine days ago from his Mbale home in Uganda, was positively identified by his family.

He said the doctor was likely drugged before he was strangled and dragged to his burial place in Machemo village. His body was there for about three days.

The body had a missing shoe and dark spots on the neck and shoulder.

"We have obtained DNA samples from some close relatives of the late doctor and will match them with those we collected from the body to ascertain the relations before we give a full report," he said.

"We presume it will be ready in two days."

The Standard learned that the doctor's daughter, Vivian Muyana and his brother Peter Wanyonyi volunteered to give samples to help the police match the DNA after positively identifying the body.

The Standard also gathered that the Kenyan Interpol detectives are contemplating passing the case to their Ugandan counterparts in Mbale where two other suspects believed to have been part of an extortion plot and later on murder of the Leeds University-trained medic are holed up.

"Wamasebu's lawyer wants this to be treated as a case of kidnap which started in Uganda all the way to Kenya.

"If they succeed in having it that way, it means we will shelve the murder charges we were contemplating to level to the suspect in Kenya and hand him over to the Uganda authorities," he said. Kevin Shatome, 27, who runs two African Indigenous churches in both Kenya and Uganda is being held as a suspect in connection with the incident.

It is from his Uganda church that Wamasebu, a retired Heath Officer of Manafwa District, eastern Uganda, first met the suspect, a well-known diviner in Malava.