Kenya: A former chief Government pathologist has ruled out suggestions that the late Olympic marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru committed suicide.
According to Moses Njue, the athlete was murdered, contrary to earlier allegations that he had ended his own life.
Dr Njue who led a team of four doctors in conducting the post-mortem told an inquest probing the cause of Wanjiru’s death that the then 24-year-old Olympic star was attacked after falling from the balcony.
The former chief pathologist testified that Wanjiru was hit with a blunt object by an assailant after he had jumped or had been pushed off the balcony of his home in the exclusive Muthaiga Estate, Nyahururu on the night of May 16, 2011. “I am convinced that the deceased was independently hit by another person after he had fallen off the balcony,” he said.
The pathologist said the post-mortem was conducted on May 27, 2011 by four doctors, who included his deputy at the time Dr Johansen Oduor, Emily Rogena and Dr Peter Ndegwa, in the presence of Kamau’s mother Ann Wanjiru. Njue said according to the pattern of his falling, Wanjiru sustained serious injuries on the palm of his hands and knees; which indicated he fell on his fours. The pathologist added that the athlete’s back had no injuries.
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“It was not possible for the deceased to have fallen, then rebounded back to sustain such serious injuries on the head,” Njue testified.
He said they visited the home and took measurements from the ground up to the balcony, where he was said to have plunged off and established it was 14 feet high. “We were not convinced that the deceased died after falling from the balcony since the maximum height he could have fallen from was 14 feet yet he was five feet and four inches tall. For a height to have a significant effect that can generate momentum to kill, it must have been three to four times the height of the deceased,” Njue said. He said there was injury on the right cheek showing forced imprints on the skin while the back of the head was swollen with a mass collection of blood; while the skull was split into two.
