A decade-long pursuit for justice finally bore fruit after the High Court in Meru sentenced Lochuku Lekepei to 10 years imprisonment for manslaughter over the 2015 disappearance and death of Morris Munene Mate.
Mate was an Isiolo GK Prison officer whose body was never recovered.
The conviction marks the culmination of painstaking investigations by Homicide detectives, who relied on forensic and circumstantial evidence to unravel the mystery surrounding the complex case despite the absence of the victim’s body and the lack of any witness who saw the deceased’s body.
Although the victim’s body was never found, the court was satisfied that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that he died as a result of an unlawful act.
As a result, the court substituted the original murder charge with a conviction for manslaughter.
Investigations established that Mate disappeared on July 23, 2015, after travelling to Oldonyiro, Isiolo North Sub-County, on a business trip.
Detectives later recovered his blood-stained clothing and a blood-stained stone at Mlima wa Chui area.
DNA analysis conducted confirmed that the blood and other items recovered belonged to the missing prison officer, while forensic analysis placed the convict in constant communication with the deceased and in the same geographical vicinity shortly before his disappearance.
In its judgment delivered on 16 July 2026, the High Court held that the circumstantial evidence, corroborated by forensic DNA examination, irresistibly pointed to the convict’s involvement in the unlawful killing, even in the absence of the victim’s body.
The court accordingly convicted him of manslaughter under Sections 202 and 205 of the Penal Code, sentencing him to ten years in prison.
The case underscores the DCI’s commitment to conducting thorough, evidence-based investigations, ensuring that victims receive justice and offenders are held accountable.
It opens up the way to other such cases pending under investigations.
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