•Family opposed the accused's bail application saying he will interfere with witnesses.
•Chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor allegedly advised the accused's parents to take Beryl's body to the hospital and tried to persuade the hospital to lie about her death.
Image: FILE
Chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor has been accused of interfering with a case in which his relative is charged with killing his wife at Kahawa West Sukari Estate in Nairobi.
In a affidavit filed at the Kiambu High Court by the deceased's father Douglas Ouma Nyakach through family lawyer Evans Ondieki, the family accused Oduor of interfering with witnesses. Oduor, they say, is a cousin of the accused.
The family of the victim, Beryl Adhiambo Ouma, opposed bail application by the accused Lyko Osuri, saying if released on bail he will interfere with witnesses, most of whom are his relatives.
They said immediately after the murder of their daughter, Oduor advised the accused's parents to remove the body from the crime scene (house) to the hospital and tried to persuade the hospital to lie about the death of the 28-year-old.
Osuri is charged with murdering his wife Beryl during a domestic squabble on February 21 at their Kahawa Sukari home.
Beryl is said to have been killed after hours of beating before her body was taken to Neema Uhai Hospital in the area.
Nyakach said the father and the mother of the accuse, jointly with other relatives, wanted to cover up the murder by physically carrying the body from the third floor, the scene of murder, to the ground floor and later to the hospital.
He said the hospital reception refused to admit the body since Beryl had already died.
"The accused is very forceful, arrogant and is likely to violently interfere with the witnesses," Nyakach, who is also a former senior local chief, said.
In his affidavit, Nyakach described 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".
Nyakach said there is overwhelming evidence the accused manually strangled his daughter.
He said the relationship between the accused person and the potential witnesses puts him in a position of influence.
"There is a legitimate anxiety about the impact the accused person might have on such witnesses if is released pending trial," Nyakach said.
He said pre-trial detention will be necessary to preserve public order, saying his release will likely lead to a public disturbance.
Nyakach said the accused married his daughter in October 2017. He said the accused has previous cases of assault and was repatriated from Qatar where he used to work.
The accused, through his lawyer Cliff Ombeta, filed application in court seeking to be released on bail pending the hearing and determination of the murder case against him.
In the application, the lawyer said his client 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 denied the murder charge before Kiambu High Court judge Christine Meole.
A mental examination at Mathare Mental Hospital declared him fit to stand trial.
Beryl, a clinical officer, and Lyko wedded in 2017. They had been living together since the latter returned from Qatar, where he had been working. She had two miscarriages, with the last one about two weeks before her death.
On the day of her murder, neighbours reported hearing screams from Beryl's house.
“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”.
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,” the neighbour said.
Beryl’s father had said that his daughter sent him three messages asking him to call her back at around 4am, but 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 later 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.
It is said that the marriage seemed on the rocks; the family said 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 solve it. Clearly, he never stopped,”Beryl's brother Mark Ouma said.
Police reports from the hospital where Beryl was taken indicated that she died after being hit with a blunt object, but a conclusive postmortem is yet to be carried out.
Ruiru police had confirmed the incident, saying the accused regretted having assaulted his wife and said he did not know it would lead to her death.
Police also said Lyko claimed to have used a belt to beat his wife.