Dr James Gakara nakuru doctor killed children

Dr James Gakara.

| Pool

More troubles stalk Nakuru doctor James Gakara’s family

As the family of the late Nakuru doctor James Gakara struggled to come to terms with the painful loss of the medic and his two children, his elder sister was taken ill over the shock of the incident.

Family spokesperson Burton Njoroge yesterday told the Nation that Mary Gakara has been in and out of hospital but she is currently in a stable condition.

"We have since decided as a family to engage a counsellor to help Mary and Dr Gakara’s other sisters who have been struggling to come to terms after the incident," said Mr Njoroge.

"It has been the hardest time for the family accepting the ordeal. Mary was so close to the late Dr Gakara. But we are trying our best in helping her and the other sisters," added Mr Njoroge.

At the same time, Mr Njoroge revealed that Dr Gakara's widow, Winnie Odhiambo, was doing well following her admission to hospital moments after her husband's death.

The family said she relapsed into the shock she had suffered on receiving the news of her children’s death on learning that her husband, from whom she had hoped to get answers to her many unanswered questions, had also breathed his last.

"The doctor's wife is fine. She is stable but still recuperating, slowly coming to terms with the demise of her children and husband," he said.

Dr Gakara, the main suspect in the murder of his five-year-old son Dylan and three-year-old daughter Karuana, died last week while undergoing treatment at Nakuru Level Five Hospital.

He had been found unconscious in his bed in a separate room from where the bodies of his children were found on September 18.

Karuana Gakara and Dylan Gakara

Karuana Gakara, 3, and Dylan Gakara, 5, the two children suspected to have been murdered by their father, Dr James Gakara.

Photo credit: Pool

In the house, police found assorted drugs the doctor is suspected to have injected his children and himself.

A post-mortem on the bodies of the two minors, conducted last Sunday at the Nakuru County morgue, was inconclusive and detectives collected samples for further analysis.

The exam on Dr Gakara’s body, done on Friday, revealed that he died as a result of ingesting an unknown substance.

Dr Titus Ngulungu, the government pathologist who conducted the post-mortem at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital mortuary, reported traces of drugs in the body and the presence of injection marks on one of the arms.

"As a result of my examination, I have formed the opinion that the cause of death was a foreign substance suspected to be medicine,” Dr Ngulungu said, noting, however, that the type of substance was not immediately clear.

“For now, we cannot establish if the medicine in his body was administered by him or by a doctor. We have taken organ and tissue samples to the Government Chemist, where they will be analysed to establish if there was something else and if it was poisonous.”

Nakuru doctor James Gakara's family and friends at the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital on September 22, 2021. 

Photo credit: Cheboite Kigen | Nation Media Group

The post-mortem was conducted in the presence of representatives from the doctor’s and his wife’s families.

Meanwhile, the family says burial arrangements are almost complete, ahead of the send-off, scheduled for tomorrow.

A requiem mass will be held at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Milimani today, ahead of the burial at their Mbaruk home in Gilgil.

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