Fresh post-mortem on Sankok’s son to be conducted on Friday
Nominated MP David Ole Sankok.
What you need to know:
- Yesterday, detectives from DCI headquarters spent the better part of the day at the home of the MP.
- First examination revealed that teenager died from a single bullet that entered through his chin.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) will conduct a second post-mortem examination on the body of nominated MP David Sankok’s son on Friday in Nakuru.
The DCI will involve a forensic expert in the process, which will be steered by Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor at the Umash Funeral Home, where the body of Hillary Memusi Sankok, 15, is preserved, the Nation has learned.
Yesterday, a team from the DCI headquarters in Nairobi spent the better part of the day at the home of the MP and at his hotel, trying to corroborate circumstantial evidence collected from scene of crime personnel and key witnesses who have been interrogated since the death of the boy on Monday last week. This as they await a report on the ballistics analysis done on two guns owned by the legislator.
The student was to be buried today, but DCI boss George Kinoti commissioned the second autopsy after it emerged that there had been inconsistencies in witness accounts, the spent cartridge was missing and a forensic pathologist had not been involved during the first post-mortem examination at the Longisa Hospital in Bomet County on May 3.
The results of the first examination revealed that Memusi died from a single bullet that entered through his chin and exited from the left top of his head.
Yesterday, Narok County DCI boss Mwenda Ethaiba confirmed to the Nation that the second post-mortem exam would be done on Friday and that a team of different experts had been constituted to conduct it.
“This very necessary exercise will give a conclusive report about the death and then we can allow the family to go ahead with the burial arrangements,” Mr Ethaiba said, adding that some key details had been left out in the first post-mortem exam.
During a forensic pathology of gunshot wounds, detectives endeavour to interpret the injuries by observing the cavity, surrounding skin or the injury tract, the direction and angle the bullet took, and the projectile.
They will deliberate on the cause and manner of the injury, entry and exit characteristics, distance and direction of fire, and the vitality of the wound.
“If the victim indeed took his own life, his arms will have debris, as usually, when the trigger is pulled, residue comes out from the ejector and remains on the palm,” an investigator said.
Detectives on the case are optimistic that the results of the ballistic examination on the shotgun alleged to have been used, and another firearm -- a Ceska that the MP owns and which was in his possession -- will have been concluded. The examination on the firearms will also establish which one discharged the bullet that took the minor’s life.
This way, the detectives and forensic experts will be in a position to corroborate the results of the ballistics with what they discover from the forensic pathology and the accounts of the 13 people who have so far been interrogated, including the MP, his wife Hellen, their daughter and son, and several employees.
Police have conducted the interrogations more than seven times and even conducted a scene re-enactment on Saturday.
Sources at the DCI headquarters said they were also conducting victimology to establish the profile of the boy. Some of the things they would want to establish are whether the boy had initially handled a gun and if he fits a suicide profile.
Apart from establishing the legality of the guns, Mr Ethaiba had earlier said that the investigators were also probing the possibility of the gun having been kept unsafely, against the law. The Firearms Act stipulates that every registered firearm holder should maintain a suitable enclosed store for the safe custody of firearms and ammunition in his possession.
It also states that the licensed owner of a firearm should ensure that the weapon is not lost or stolen and is not at any time available to any person not lawfully entitled to possess it.
Those who fail to comply with the law are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding Sh10,000 or to both, states the law.
“When the gun is not with the licensed holder, then it should be under lock and key in the safe. Even if the couple is living in the same bedroom and one of them is licensed the other is prohibited from accessing it,” said Mr Mwenda.
