Nakuru-based lawyer Harry Gakinya who is engaged in a court battle with the police over the control of a Sh100 million estate belonging to Belgian woman, Dysselleer Mireille Lesoipa, who is said to have died in 2018.
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DCI ordered to return seized vehicle to lawyer linked to Belgian millionaire’s murder
What you need to know:
- Detectives had seized the vehicle in January last year, saying it belonged to the estate of the late millionaire Dysseleer Mireille Lesoipa.
- Mr Gakinya, who has denied the murder charge and is out on bail, said he is the executor of the will of the late Belgian millionaire.
The High Court has ordered the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to return a car seized from a lawyer linked to the disappearance and murder of a wealthy Belgian woman.
Justice Daniel Ogembo directed the case investigating officer to release the Toyota Prado (KBP 298E) to lawyer John Hari Gakinya pending the determination of the murder case.
Detectives had seized the vehicle in January last year, saying it belonged to the estate of the late millionaire Dysseleer Mireille Lesoipa, alias Wa Samburu.
The lawyer is being tried alongside Ms Lesoipa’s friend Lucy Waithera Njuguna over her disappearance and murder. They are said to have committed the offence between December 11, 2018 and July 15, 2019.
Justice Ogembo ordered the lawyer never to sell or dispose of the vehicle until the murder case is determined. The vehicle was seized when Mr Gakinya was arrested on March 10, 2020.
Pleading for the release of the vehicle, Mr Gakinya had told the court it was in danger of being vandalised at the police station.
Executor of the will
Mr Gakinya, who has denied the murder charge and is out on bail, said he is the executor of the will of the late Belgian millionaire, whose estate is reported to be worth Sh100 million.
The court also heard that the High Court in Nakuru had on January 16, 2020 given police 21 days to complete investigations and release the vehicle, and those days have long lapsed.
The public prosecutor’s office had opposed the release of the vehicle. Investigators said the vehicle’s documents might have been fraudulently obtained.
The court was also told that in an existing succession case regarding the estate of Ms Lesoipa at the High Court in Nakuru, the motor vehicle has been under investigation as being associated with her.
Prosecutors said Ms Lesoipa, who came to Kenya 30 years ago to marry her Samburu lover, went missing from her home in Milimani, Nakuru County, in June 2019.
She captured headlines when she fell in love with a Samburu man and they solemnised their marriage in 1995. The union later collapsed and the couple divorced in 2004.
Plotting the murder
Following the divorce, the two engaged in court battles involving the ownership of a property in Maralal.
When Ms Njuguna was arrested, she was found with a copy of Ms Lesoipa’s death certificate and her assorted bank cards.
She was also found in possession of Ms Lesoipa’s original passport with immigration stamps indicating that she had travelled to India on December 12, 2018, and returned to Kenya on June 30, 2019.
Ms Njuguna is said to have been a close friend to Ms Lesoipa’s before her disappearance.
She is suspected of plotting her murder, faking a death certificate and initiating a succession process for Ms Lesoipa’s estate.
She allegedly forged a death certificate and claimed Ms Lesoipa died of HIV/Aids. The certificate was used in the filing of estate succession proceedings at the High Court in Nakuru.
