The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a former boss at the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) took another twist last Sunday after human remains were discovered at his Chepkurmum farm in Keiyo South Sub County.
The remains believed to be those of former KVDA MD Silvanos Tubei, who reportedly went missing some 12 years ago, were recovered in a shallow grave in Chepkurmum village in Tumeiyo area.
Preliminary reports into the incident indicated that a worker at the compound raised an alarm after children from the neighbourhood accidentally bumped into the remains while fetching firewood at the home of Tubei.
The worker who was on routine cleaning of the compound told detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that the children pulled a partially buried blanket last Sunday only to find that human remains appeared wrapped in the shallow grave.
“On December 31st, neighbour’s children who were on a firewood fetching expedition in the compound but their attempts to pull out a piece of blanket protruding from the ground exposed the remains, before the matter was reported to local chief,” witnesses said.
Keiyo South OCPD Abdulahi Dahir confirmed the incident, adding that a missing person’s report that was filed by relatives of Mr. Tubei was still pending even after two people, including his estranged wife and another suspect, were held for questioning over his whereabouts.
He said the duo were arraigned before a local court over the disappearance of the former KVDA boss but were later released due to lack of evidence in 2012, as neither the body nor Tubei himself could be traced at the time of the trial.
Dahir said officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation visited the area and cordoned off the scene, awaiting court orders to exhume the remains, which will be subjected to DNA testing to ascertain whether they belonged to the missing Director.
Neighbours who sought anonymity expressed fears that his second wife, who was arrested along with a suspect, found the mobile phone of Tubei and might have had a hand in his disappearance and possibly murder as she left the homestead upon her acquittal.
“Most villagers suspected that his second wife, whom he married after his first wife died, could have hired hitmen to kill Tubei before leaving their matrimonial home in a huff under suspicious circumstances,” a villager claimed.
Witnesses claimed Tubei appeared to have resorted to drinking heavily to avoid his estranged wife, with whom they quarrelled most of the time, before he was reported missing, raising suspicion over the human remains recovered at his farm.
Two of Tubei’s children, with his deceased first wife, had since relocated abroad, while his second wife left without a trace with the one child they had in their turbulent marriage.
By Alice Wanjiru
