A case that puzzled investigators for more than a decade has finally been concluded after the High Court in Meru convicted a man over the disappearance and death of an Isiolo prison officer whose body was never recovered.
In a statement, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced that the court sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for manslaughter in connection with the 2015 disappearance of Morris Munene Mate, an officer attached to Isiolo GK Prison.
According to the DCI, the conviction followed years of investigations that relied heavily on forensic and circumstantial evidence, despite the absence of the victim’s body and any eyewitness account linking the accused to the killing.
Prison officer vanished during business trip
Investigators established that Mate disappeared on July 23, 2015, after travelling to Oldonyiro in Isiolo North Sub-County on a business trip.
As detectives pursued leads, they recovered blood-stained clothing and a blood-stained stone in the Mlima wa Chui area.
DNA tests later confirmed that the blood and items recovered belonged to the missing prison officer.
The DCI further revealed that forensic analysis placed the convicted individual in constant communication with the deceased and within the same geographical location shortly before the prison officer disappeared.
“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,” the DCI stated.
Court satisfied by forensic evidence
In its judgment delivered on July 16, 2026, the High Court ruled that the circumstantial and forensic evidence presented before it proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim died as a result of an unlawful act.
Although the original charge was murder, the court substituted it with a conviction for manslaughter.
“The 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 DCI said.
The court subsequently convicted the accused under Sections 202 and 205 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment.
The DCI said the case demonstrates the importance of evidence-based investigations and shows that justice can still be achieved even in complex cases where a victim’s body is never recovered.
