Postmortem fails to establish cause of British woman's death in Mombasa
Lutfunisa Khandwalla, 44, died on August 2, 2020, and was buried the same day at the Memon cemetery, Mombasa.
A postmortem on the body of a British national who died under mysterious circumstances in Mombasa has failed to establish the cause of her death.
But preliminary findings indicate that Ms Luftunisa Khandwalla’s brain was intact two years after she was buried.
“The brain is shrunken and found inside the opened skull. It was intact. The cause of death unascertained pending histology, toxicology and DNA,” said the report released to the family by government pathologist Johansen Oduor.
Samples taken from the soil in the grave, including remnants of the kidney, urinary bladder and intestines, were taken for toxicology tests.
The medical procedure also found no fracture in the skull and scalp, but most of the soft tissues and muscles had decomposed and could hardly be identified.
“There were areas of fracture on the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage. These were retained for histological analysis in order to establish if the fracture was post mortem or pre mortem,” said the report.
The shaft of the femur bone (mid shaft) and meniscus cartilage were taken for DNA analysis, while the hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage and brain were taken for histology analysis.
Vital organs such as lungs, heart, liver and other vessels were found to have completely decomposed and were not identifiable.
Ms Khandwalla, who was 44, died on August 2, 2020 and was buried the same day without the cause of death being established.
It was alleged that she was given a chemical used for freezing by a spiritual leader, who had told her that it would cure her ailments, after which she died.
Her body was exhumed last month after her brother, Imran Admani, obtained a court order from a Mombasa court.
Police and family members at Memon Cemetery where Ms Lutfunisa Khandwalla's body was exhumed for toxicology tests and a postmortem.
He suspected foul play and asked for the body to be exhumed for a postmortem to be conducted to determine what killed her.
Her family had been told that she was killed by the devil, prompting them to seek the medical procedure to settle the matter.
Ms Khandwalla died while visiting her husband’s relatives in Mombasa, where it was alleged the devil had killed her as a spiritual leader tried to help her. She was buried at the Memon cemetery.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has recorded the statements of at least 14 witnesses regarding the incident that led to her demise.
The alleged spiritual leader is being treated by the state as a prime suspect in the woman’s death.
Imran Admani (right) and his advocate Jecinter Wekesa at the Mombasa Court on October 13,2022. The court has ordered for the exhumation of the body of Mr Admani's sister Ms Lutfunisa Khandwalla who died under mysterious circumstances while on a visit to Mombasa.
With the postmortem yielding little, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji will have to wait for further analysis of the samples taken from the body before deciding how to proceed.
Prosecutors had informed the court during the exhumation proceedings that the outcome of the postmortem would directly impact the decision of the DPP in the inquiry.
State counsel Vivian Kambaga told the court that the DPP could not conclusively determine if there was criminal culpability without a postmortem report.
The family first filed a report about Ms Khandwalla’s death at the Central Police Station on August 5 this year.
