• Her father says he is predisposed to violence and may threaten, harass, intimidate and even kill witnesses
The family of slain Beryl Ouma have opposed her widower's bail application.
The widower, Lyko Osuri, is accused of killing her at Kahawa Sukari in Nairobi last month.
Beryl's father, Douglas Nyakach, through lawyer Evans Ondieki, has filed an application at the High Court in Kiambu opposing Osuri's bail application.
He says Osuri will interfere with witnesses since most of them are related to him.
"The accused is very forceful, arrogant and is likely to violently interfere with the witnesses," said Nyakach, a former senior local chief.
In his affidavit, Nyakach describes the accused as a violent person predisposed to violence and "there is a real likelihood that he will threaten, harass, intimidate and even kill the witnesses".
He said there is overwhelming evidence that the accused strangled his daughter.
Nyakach said the relationship between the accused person and the potential witnesses puts him in a position of influence.
"There is legitimate anxiety about the impact the accused person might have on such witnesses if is released pending trial," he said.
Nyakach said pretrial detention will be necessary to preserve public order.
He said the accused married his daughter in October 2017. Nyakach said the accused has previous cases of assault and was repatriated from Qatar.
Lawyer Cliff Ombeta, in the application, said his client Osuri is a Kenyan and is ready to comply with all conditions given to him by the court. He said Osuri is not a flight risk.
On March 8, the accused was arraigned before Kiambu High Court judge Christine Meole and denied the murder charge levelled against him by the state.
A mental examination at Mathare Mental Hospital declared him fit to stand trial.
Earlier, chief magistrate Patricia Gichohi had granted police 13 days to detain the accused at Kasarani police station, following a request by the investigating officer, to conclude their investigations.
Beryl, 28, was killed in their house on February 21 after hours of beating.
“We banged the door in an attempt to open it but it was locked from inside. When one of us asked what was happening, the lady who was screaming responded saying they’ll talk," a neighbour had told police.
The neighbour said the screaming continued for a short time before it suddenly stopped.
“We assumed that they had stopped fighting and so we went on with our business."
Nyakach said his daughter sent him three messages around 4am asking him to call her back. When he called back after some time, the calls went unanswered.
“I didn’t see the texts immediately, but when I called back, she did not pick. A few minutes later, her husband called to say they had an altercation,” Nyakach said.
The husband informed his father-in-law that he had just taken Beryl to a nearby hospital for treatment but records indicated that she was brought in dead.
Beryl’s brother Mark Ouma said police insisted on taking the body to City Mortuary, but the family blocked them fearing it was a plot to cover up the murder.
“We will transfer the body to a funeral home of our choice and not a mortuary where the many interested parties can easily interfere with the autopsy,” Mark said.
Beryl, a clinical officer, and Osuri had been living together since he returned from Qatar, where he had been working. She had had two miscarriages, with the last one about two weeks before her demise.
The family said the marriage seemed to be on the rocks as the two had many wrangles, some which they failed to solve.
“Her husband is a very violent man and even last year in December, we had a family meeting to resolve it. Clearly, he never stopped,” Mark said.