It was an emotional moment during the inquest into the death of Keroche Breweries heiress Tecra Muigai as witnesses broke down in tears as they narrated her final moments before she became unconscious.
Her lover Omar Lali, who was following the proceedings in court, could not contain his tears at the mention of Tecra, sobbing uncontrollably when his brother and a friend took to the witness box to narrate the tragic tale.
The three witnesses from Lamu were the first to arrive at the house where Tecra Muigai lived with her boyfriend Omar Lali before the alleged fatal fall which led to her death in May last year.
At one point, one witness, Ali Bakari Mohamed, asked the court to allow him to cry for one minute before he could resume his testimony.
Lali’s brother Quswai Lali was the first on the dock and testified that his elder brother called him on April 23, 2020, and when he went to the house where they stayed with Tecra, he found her lying on the stairs facing up.
Quswai said he found Tecra unconscious and he tried to give her first aid, but was unsuccessful and that is when they decided to take her to the hospital.
“She was bleeding from the left ear and there were bloodstains on the stairs. We called two other friends and took her to Shera dispensary before we were advised to transfer her to King Fahad Hospital,” said Quswai.
According to Quswai, Tecra might have taken too much alcohol as the doctors told them that they would first give her some medicine to lower the alcohol levels before starting treatment.
He testified that Tecra’s death was a big loss to their family since she loved them and had promised their mother that she would stay with them forever.
“I never saw her quarrel with my brother Omar at any time. What I used to see was love between them even when they visited our mother at home. We miss her a lot in Lamu and pray that God rests her soul in peace,” said Quswai.
Mohamed who is an emergency security officer in Lamu testified that Omar called him on the fateful day to go help him take Tecra to hospital and when he reached the house, he found water around the place Tecra had fallen but did not see any bloodstains.
Meanwhile, two pathologists told the court that Tecra died due to head injuries caused by blunt force trauma.
Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor testified that the cause of her death might have not been a fall from the stairs as initially reported since the injuries on her head were not from a single impact.
“There were claims that she fell from a flight of stairs. However, there were skull fractures from her left temporal region to the base of the skull so the injuries were unlikely to have been caused by a single impact,” said Oduor.
