Nairobi News

Wife of former ICC witness the late Meshack Yebei, Lilian Terri was on Tuesday morning attacked by armed gangsters at her Langas home in Eldoret.

Ms Terri suffered deep head cuts in the 2am incident when four armed gangsters broke into her house and hacked her severally, leaving her for dead.

“The thugs gained access into the compound after scaling down the concrete wall which is reinforced with razor wire fence before breaking into the two-bedroom house,” said Samson Kinne, Uasin Gishu Police County Commandant.

She is admitted at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

“We have not established the actual motive of the attack but we suspect to be attempted robbery,” added Mr Kinne.

According to the police boss, the thugs broke the padlock before one of them gained entry into the house and attacked Mrs Yebei with a machete and took off after neighbors raised alarm.

A security team from Lavington firm which guards the estate with over 30 tenants took Mrs Yebei to hospital after they found her lying in a pool of blood on the doorstep of her house.

According to interviewed caretakers at the estate, the attackers escaped with a cell phone belonging to Mrs Yebei.

“Nothing was stolen from the house apart from the missing cell phone,” said Peter Kemboi, a caretaker at the estate.

SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS

He said, police who arrived at the compound took away a jacket that was left behind by the criminals as they fled.

“She (Mrs Yebei) had just moved in two weeks ago and is staying with her three children,” added Mr Kemboi.

Mrs Yebei, the caretaker said, had raised alarm after some suspicious characters started trailing her.

“For the last two weeks she has been here, some unknown people have visited the compound and claimed to know the widow. They however did not tell us why they were looking for her,” said Mr Kemboi.

He said two people on a motorbike and a young man who claimed to have been supplying Mrs Yebei with milk visited the compound a few days ago and asked about her whereabouts.

“We do not know exactly why unknown people have been inquiring about the widow yet she was just a new tenant who had not interacted with many of us,” said Titus Kimutai, another caretaker at the estate.

Mrs Yebei’s brother-in-law, Daniel Yebei, described her condition as stable and expressed doubts on the cause of the attack.

“Although she suffered deep head injuries, doctors have given her condition a good bill of health and we expect her to be discharged soon,” said Mr Yebei in an interview with the Nation at the hospital.

INVESTIGATIONS

According to Mr Yebei, they had a family meeting two weeks ago and his sister-in-law did not express any fears for her life.

Uasin Gishu ODM politician, Kipkorir Menjo, who was among the leaders and relatives who visited Mrs Yebei in hospital, called for thorough investigation on the incident.

“We were last together during the Western Kenya ODM conference in Kakamega and she was jovial. Police should conduct thorough investigations into the attack and have the suspects made to face the law,” said Mr Menjo.

The late Yebei’s body was recovered at Tsavo National Park, months after he was abducted outside Turbo Dispensary, where he had taken his child for treatment.

He left his wife and the sick child at the dispensary to buy water at the shopping Centre, never to return.

The defence team in the Deputy President William Ruto and former radio journalist Joshua Arap Sang had described the late Yebei as their witness in the ICC case linked to the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

The case was later dropped due to lack of sufficient evidence.

The death of Yebei has remained a mystery despite the involvement of detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.