‘Missing heart’ paralysed autopsy, officer tells Meru court
Former chief government pathologist Moses Njue gestures at a Meru court on November 7, 2019, when he testified in the inquest into the death of Mzee Benedict Karau, whose heart was found missing during a second autopsy.
A police officer on Friday told a Meru court how the discovery that a body on which a post mortem was to be performed did not have a heart, paralysed the exercise.
Appearing before Meru Chief Magistrate Dominica Nyambu, Sgt Anthony Leiboke said he heard Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor, who was leading the autopsy to establish the cause of death of Mzee Benedict Karau, saying that the body had no heart.
He said the finding caused a commotion at the Meru Funeral Home.
“As the post mortem was going on, I heard Dr Oduor ask, was this man surviving without a heart? That is when I got suspicious and went to find out what was happening,” he told the court.
Dr Oduor was to conduct the exercise alongside Dr Sylvester Maingi, Dr Scholastica Kimani and former chief government pathologist Moses Njue.
Dr Njue, who had conducted an earlier post-mortem in 2015, has denied stealing the organ.
Mr Leiboke, who was based at Mikinduri Police Station, said they had supervised the exhumation of Mzee Karau’s body at Ankamia village, Tigania Central, on August 10, 2018.
They moved the body of the former assistant chief to Meru Funeral Home where a post mortem was to be performed on August 18, 2018. He said there was tension as the body was exhumed.
Police Constable David Kyalo told the court he was present during an earlier post mortem conducted by Dr Njue alongside Dr Kimani on March 11, 2015 soon after the death.
The outcome of the exercise carried out at Consolata Mission Hospital, Nkubu, indicated that Mzee Karau died of a heart attack.
He said the report read to the family after the exercise indicated that the deceased’s body had excessive amounts of alcohol.
The police officer said he was given samples of blood, urine, stomach contents, liver and kidney and instructed to take them to the government chemist for analysis. The hearing has been fixed for March 2, 2022.
