NAIROBI, Kenya, February 10 – Former Kenyan Olympic marathon gold medallist Samuel Wanjiru was killed by a blunt object to his head and did not commit suicide, a top pathologist told an inquest Tuesday.
Wanjiru, 24, was found dead in May 15, 2011 after he fell from the first-floor balcony of his house in central Kenya’s Nyahururu town.
Former chief government pathologist Moses Njue, ruled out suicide theory in the death of Wanjiru after tabling a postmortem report, telling an inquest probing the death of the athlete that he did not commit suicide but was rather hit by a blunt object on the head before he died.
Njue told Nairobi Chief Magistrate Hannah Ndungu that it was not possible for the deceased to have fallen from the 14 feet balcony as claimed and sustain the serious head injuries that he succumbed to.
“Given the height of the deceased and where he fell from was not enough to generate momentum to kill him. It was not possible for the deceased to have fallen and then bounced back to sustain such serious injuries.
“I’m convinced that the deceased was hit after he fell on the ground by another person,” Njue testified.
The government ordered an inquest to Wanjiru’s death after three different post-mortems conducted following his death on the night of May 15, 2011 came up with different results.
Dismissing the suicide theory, Njue said the height associated with death is 30 feet or more considering that of an individual.
In wanjiru’s case, the doctor explained that his death could have occurred from at least an 18 feet fall.
The state is set to call about thirty witnesses to shed light on circumstances that led to Wanjiru’s death.
Hannah Wanjiru, the deceased mother and her daughter in law Tereza Njeri, are among those who are yet to testify before the inquest which began hearing evidence last February after delaying for three years over disagreements between the two over ideal and neutral ground.
The medalist mother had initially moved to court to have the court investigate circumstances that led to her son’s death insisting that he was killed.
Wanjiru who won Kenya’s first Olympic marathon gold medal in Beijing 2008 (2:06.32) died on the night of May 15 from what police then said was a fall from the balcony of his single storeyed house at Muthaiga Estate in Nyahururu town.