Detectives from International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) are trying to unravel how a high-flying Ugandan medical practitioner was found dead and buried in an unmarked grave along Isiukhu stream in Kenya's Malava constituency 140 kilometres away from his hometown of Mbale, Uganda.
Monday, February 13, detectives from the two countries unearthed a shallow grave along the stream in Machemo village to exhume the body believed to belong to Dr Gideon Wamasebu who went missing on February 6 from his Mbale Town home in eastern Uganda.
In the process of trying to unearth the death, the detectives obtained a court order from Malava Court Station to allow them to exhume the body for autopsy, which also saw them have the lead suspect in the medic's killing, Kevin Shatome escort them to the site the detectives believe he killed and buried the doctor.
"We believe the body belongs to the Ugandan doctor, but let's wait until the autopsy report," said the Kenyan detective from Interpol's East and Central Africa region's bureau domiciled at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation's complex on Kiambu Road in Nairobi.
Shatome, 27, whose perception in his village is split on whether he is a true seer and diviner, was arrested on Thursday in possession of the doctor's phone, which police believe he used to text Wamasebu's close family members with the intent to extort them.
On the fateful day, Shatome had fallen into the trap of a relative who was working closely with police after suspecting the diction of the "sell my land, sell my cars" messages.
"The relative picked up the doctor's car from Mbale and drove it to Malaba border, then called Shatome to pick up the vehicle.
Shatome did not come but sent his younger brother (now in Mbale Police Station Uganda) to the border to have the vehicle, and it's when Uganda police arrested him, and together with their Kenyan counterparts, crossed into the country to Shatome's Malava home where he was sending the messages from. We whisked him from his house's ceiling board and acquired the phone," said a detective who did not wish to be mentioned.
He added: "We noticed traces of blood in his compound and followed the trail, which led us to Isiukhu stream where we noticed the grave where we suspect he buried the doctor."
Malava OCPD Paul Mwendwa said that Shatome was an ex-convict and had committed crimes in Bungoma.
The doctor's family told The Standard that their relative crossed into the country last Monday with a ward of notes for an unknown reason.
They believe that Shatome, a devout member of African Kenya Sabcrynnsk of Soi Praying and Healing Church, headquarters Malava (East Kabras), induced their kin, a Leeds University trained doctor, to the country on the guise that he was in a position to pray and intercede for him.
"We realised that my uncle had really trusted him, and he must have used that to manipulate him to his death," said Don Wanyama, the family spokesperson who is also the nephew of the dead doctor.
The family maintained that for the days their kin went missing, unknown people had been calling and texting them, demanding ransom for his release.
"They used his phone to text and make calls to close relatives making outrageous demands of up to Sh4 million to have him freed. In some cases one fakes his voice ordering that we sell his two cars to raise the amount," said Wanyama.
"Shatome was well known to some of us as he kept coming to Uganda to visit our kin and also had a family and church in Uganda."
They were surprised that the seer had a family in Kenya, a wife and two children and a church in his house, where Wamasebu was convinced to visit often.
Until his retirement from public service to venture into consultancy Wamasebu, 62, was a District Director of Health Services, in Manafwa District, Uganda.
Tatuli Mubasu, the neighbour of Shatome and owner of the land where the Isiukhu stream passes through, told journalists he was "surprised" by the unmarked grave on his land.
The body exhumation process which came to a close at 5:50 pm, was hindered for some time when the Kabras elders demanded that the DCI detectives give a black sheep to the land owner for cleansing purposes.
It took DCI head of homicide Martin Nyaguto's effort to cool the leaders down but not to satisfactory levels, as when their demand was not met, they barred the police vehicle, which was ferrying the body from passing through certain roads they had used to access the grave.
rwaswani@standardmedia.co.ke
