When can a missing person be declared dead? Judge ends Vihiga family’s 54-year wait

For more than half a century, the family of Musa Shivulu lived in agonising limbo. He was a brother, a relative and a name on a land title, only present in law but absent in life.

That uncertainty finally ended on May 28, 2026, when the High Court in Vihiga declared Shivulu legally dead, more than 54 years after he was last seen in Bungoma.