Former policeman Benedict Karau M’Nchamaru was 70 when he allegedly choked while having dinner at the home he shared with his second wife, who lived in Tigania, Meru County.
According to one account, he was taken to the Consolata Nkubu Mission Hospital in South Imenti, which was curious because the people who took him to the hospital drove past several others on the way. As fate would have it, Karau was pronounced dead on arrival.
“The person who went to book for a post-mortem examination was told that the hospital had standing instructions from a doctor that nothing should be done to Karau’s body without the doctor being alerted first,” Karau’s son, Mr Charles Benedict Mwongela, a lawyer, told the Nairobi Law Monthly.
Mr Mwongela’s brother, who was seeking the autopsy, was given the doctor’s telephone number, and on calling, Dr Moses Njue answered, introduced himself and confirmed that he had indeed given the specific instructions to the hospital’s medical team. This was another curiosity because, whereas the hospital was in Meru, Dr Njue was a government pathologist based in Nyeri, 137 kilometres away.
“He was not an employee of Nkubu Hospital either,” Mr Mwongela said in a recent interview.
To this day, the lawyer believes that Dr Njue — who was well known for the high-profile cases he handled over his long career in the public service — was trafficking human body parts.
“He was probably selling organs,” said Mr Mwongela about the famous pathologist Dr Moses Njue.
Dr Njue, who served variously as Provincial Government Pathologist in Nyeri and later as Chief Government Pathologist. “He would, at a fee, cover for parties (at risk of) being found responsible for the death of a person.”
Eventually, Dr Njue and Meru County pathologist Scholastica Kimani conducted the post-mortem examination at the Nkubu Mission Hospital Mortuary on March 12, 2015. According to Dr Kimani’s testimony in court, Dr Njue asked for containers and took away the heart, stomach parts, blood and urine samples from Karau’s body.
“He said he needed the organs for further tests, and I am aware he was required to ask for consent from the family,” she told the court.
However, since Karau’s family had hired the veteran pathologist, Dr Kimani must have assumed that either the family was informed or had consented.
To read the full story, get the February 2024 issue of NLM at https://epaper.nairobilawmonthly.com.
– Wainaina Ndung’u
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