Whose blood was it in Munuhe’s bedroom?

By David Ochami and Patrick Mathangani

Six years after the death of a journalist assisting in the capture of Rwandan fugitive Felicen Kabuga, questions are emerging as to whether someone else may have died in the room where his body was discovered.

While blood was splattered all over the room where William Munuhe’s body was found, two sets of post-mortem reports revealed he had no physical injuries.

Interestingly, none of the pathologists analysed samples of blood on the walls to establish whether it belonged to the deceased or someone else.

Efforts by the Kenya Police and a relative to tamper with the scene of crime also point to a possible cover-up.

Suicide theory

An autopsy conducted by a police pathologist, Dr Jane Wasike Simiyu, on January 19, 2003, suggested Munuhe may have committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide.

In her report, she further pointed out: “There are no obvious open wounds noted.”

“There was no evidence of recent or remote soft tissue and bone injuries,” says the second post-mortem report conducted by three other pathologists.

The report further notes: “Scene already disturbed and all furniture removed from the house. The spare bedroom had a large low velocity blood splatter with flow from the upper end of room towards the door.”

It says the upper wall, the roof and the footwall showed tiny intermediate velocity type bloodstains. The discovery of blood splatters raises the question of its source. Munuhe’s decomposing body was discovered on January 17, 2003, in his Karen flat, two days after he went missing.

It is suspected he died on January 14, the same day he was last seen alive. He was scheduled to meet US investigators and a doctor on January 15, but never turned up. Initial reports suggested the journalist may have been shot dead.

A Norwegian professor of Forensic Medicine, Dr Sidsel Rodge, who was consulted by the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) to analyse two post-mortem reports conducted on the body, questioned the presence of blood splatters.

“The blood under the bed might be due to decomposition, but if there were blood splatters, that indicates that the deceased had been beaten, rendered unconscious and left with the jiko,” wrote Dr Rodge in an email to IMLU.

In another analysis, she wrote: “It is hard to believe that there were no injuries on a person in whose flat there were blood splatters all over the place. It could, of course be someone else’s blood. The blood splatters tell me that someone has been subjected to violence. The pattern you describe is suggestive of repeated blunt force. It may also be due to gunshot or stab wounds.”

No injuries

Interestingly, the second autopsy conducted on March 14, 2003, by Dr Zambezi Mutuma (for the Government) and Dr Emily Rogena and Dr Andrew Gachie representing the deceased’s family, disclosed neither penetrative physical injuries nor bullet and metal objects in the corpse.

An X-ray also detected neither bone fractures nor metals in the body. The autopsy and toxicological tests suggested Munuhe died of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning from a charcoal burner.

However, Norwegian pathologists from University of Oslo were unable to perform their own independent toxicological examination on tissues samples harvested at the first autopsy and stored at the Ministry of Health’s Department of Standards and Regulation Services.

“We have made efforts to analyse cyanide in muscle, carbon monoxide haemoglobin in blood and do a general screening for drugs in stomach contents, liver and muscle,” said Dr Vigdis Olsen and Dr Hakon Aune of University of Oslo. They added: “Due to advanced decomposition, the submitted samples were not suitable for analysis.”

The samples had been flown to Oslo University’s Department of Forensics Medicine in late May or early June 2003.

These inconsistencies coupled with contradicting police reports about the scene of crime have pointed to a possible cover-up.

But Police spokesman Erick Kiraithe told CCI that Munuhe’s file is still open and investigations are ongoing.

When police broke into Munuhe’s flat on January 17, 2003, his body was found sprawled on a bed with a large low velocity splatter of blood beginning at the end of the ill ventilated room. There were a lot of flies.

Two empty antacid bottles and a sachet of augment tablets were found in the kitchen besides a cold charcoal burner.

An unspecified hemorrhagic fluid was found beside the corpse whose skin had peeled away. One of his big toe nails was missing, suggesting forcible removal.

Siminyu’s report indicated there were no signs of recent injuries to the body at the time of death. Her report showed an intact skull and normal pre-death cardiovascular, nervous, lymphatic and genito-urinary systems.

Toxicological tests

After toxicological tests on two blood samples revealed high amounts of carbon monoxide and alcohol, she concluded the cause of death was, carbon monoxide toxicity.

She also suggested Munuhe vomited blood to explain the large stain on the floor. She observed cherry red colouration of skeletal muscles, consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning.

The pathologists who conducted the second autopsy said the cherry red colouration “could be caused by other factors such as cyanide, arsenic poisoning and hypothermia, though very rarely”.

Meanwhile police and some relatives were accused of trying to recreate evidence at Munuhe’s bedroom.

Two similar pictures, both purporting to depict the scene, emerged. But one, taken days after the discovery of the corpse, included earrings suggesting Munuhe was visited by a woman on the day he died. One relative visited the scene and rearranged furniture several times.

This relative also burnt and shredded some documents after the corpse’s discovery. In the meantime, Munuhe’s family is still crying out for justice.

At her home in Muruguru village, Nyeri South District, his mother Lydia Wangui said she is unaware whether investigations yielded anything.

“No one has ever come to say what happened,” says Wangui.

“I don’t know who killed my son.”

However, she says the jiko theory was a lie, insisting he was murdered for his efforts to lead American authorities to Kabuga.

“I get frightened whenever strangers visit,” she says, referring to our impromptu visit to her home. “But I always say I’m ready for anything. Whoever will come and say they want to kill me over the issue, I will just ask them to shoot me. I’m angry. I feel a lot of pain.”

Wangui says days before he was killed, Munuhe had told friends he was leaving the country for further studies in the United States. He had also told her that there was something he was doing which, if successful, would deliver the family out of poverty.

“He had told his brothers and sister that even if he would be away, he would help them the best way he could,” she said.

However, the dreams of wealth and a better life sputtered out the day the family received news of his death. “He was not doing it to get rich,” says his mother.

“He was helping to have a dangerous man arrested. He was a hero, but the matter has been treated as if no one cares at all.”

It is believed the wealth he talked about was the compensation for delivering Kabuga, who has a $5 million (Sh340 million) bounty on his head.

American authorities had promised to pay the cash to anyone who would volunteer information leading to Kabuga’s arrest.

Risky business

What bothers Wangui is that Kenya Police and US authorities exposed her son to danger, yet they knew he was risking his life. The family only received Sh100,000 to cover funeral expenses.

A Press release issued by the US embassy killed the family’s hopes, after the US Government insisted any compensation would be issued only after Kabuga is arrested.

The statement, issued on February 13, 2003, however, said the compensation programme only pays out to willing providers of accurate information leading to the capture of suspects.

“When Mr Kabuga is finally captured—as we are certain he will be—the Reward to Justice Programme will make its decision about the distribution of reward monies,” said the statement.

Five years since that statement expressed confidence the fugitive would be cornered, Kabuga still roams free.

And Munuhe’s killers also remain unknown.

Courtesy of:http://www.eastandard.net