How family discovered kin’s heart was missing

A Meru court was told how a family discovered that their kin’s heart was missing from his body months after he had been buried.

Chief Magistrate Hannah Ndung’u was told a month after Benedict Karau, a retired assistant chief, died aged 74 in March 2015, two of his families suspected he had been murdered.

This was despite a postmortem examination conducted at the Consolata Nkubu Mission Hospital mortuary, whose findings indicated the family patriarch had died of a heart attack after choking during an evening meal.

Karau’s son Charles Benedict Mwongela (pictured) was the first to take the witness stand in the criminal prosecution against former chief government pathologist Moses Njue.

Dr Njue has denied stealing a heart from Karau’s body during a postmortem examination. Njue has also denied destroying evidence by disposing of the heart, and illegal removal of body part against to Section 13 of Anatomy Act.

Mr Mwongela told the court although two homes of his polygamous father’s family had initial misgivings about the death, they decided to let the burial proceed after the initial pathology pointed to a heart attack.

Mwongela told the court the first pathology examination was conducted by Njue, representing the family of Karau’s youngest wife, and a government pathologist Scholastica Kimani.

Mwongela said they were also concerned that a toxicology report on their father’s body recorded an alcohol equivalent of 10 shots of whisky, yet he had been a teetotaler.

He said children of the two other wives decided to seek alternative opinion and that another pathologist Wangai Kiama recommended an exhumation and repeat postmortem examination.

The family applied for an exhumation, which happened on August 10, 2015, and a repeat pathology on August 18, the same year, led by chief government pathologist Johanssen Oduor.

“Briefing the family after the exercise, Dr Odour said he had discovered defensive injuries on the hands and that the heart and the kidney were missing from the body,” said Mwongela.

He said Oduor informed them that Njue had mentioned taking the heart for tests but he was subsequently unable to produce the organ.

But Njue’s lawyer John Abwuor accused two of Karau’s families of monopolising the investigations into the death and questioned some evidence.

“Why was an exhumation done and the body reserved for 10 days without an agreement on who was to secure it? Who knows what happened within the 10 days?”

Hearing continues on February 19.