More questions on Saitoti death

By ALLY JAMAH

Last week’s proceedings of the Inquiry into the helicopter crash that killed Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and five others has sparked concerns about how the Government does its job of collecting and analysing crucial blood and tissue samples, which are vital in judicial investigations.

Another equally puzzling issue that came to the fore in last week’s testimony is the apparent cover-up effort that was apparently instigated by National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).

The revelation by Government forensic pathologist Amritpal Kalsi that the State spy agency issued a directive ordering pathologists to keep postmortem results secret raised more questions than answers on the motive of the orders.

Asked if she had come across similar directives from NSIS in her career, Dr Kalsi responded: “This was the first time I received such a directive from NSIS in my pathology career and we had to comply with the directive.”

The commission, led by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal, also learnt last week that the blood samples of the crash victims may no longer be available for retesting, having dried out at the Government Chemist.

This may deny the Commission crucial leads in unraveling the possible causes of death for the six crash victims.  This is especially so, since lawyers of the victims had raised doubts about the accuracy of the blood and tissue provided by the Government Chemist earlier.

This came after Assistant Government Chemist Joyce Wairimu Njoya told the Commission early this month that co-pilot Luke Oyugi had high levels of carbon monoxide poison gas (68.6 per cent) in his blood, while pilot Nancy Gituanja, who was seated beside him, had no such poisoning. Prof Saitoti also returned negative results for the poison gas.

“How is it possible for one pilot to have such a high level of poison gas, when the person close to him appeared not to have inhaled the gas?” wondered the Saitoti family lawyer Fred Ngatia. 

Further tests on the blood samples would have been necessary after postmortem analysis revealed that all the crash victims had indications of having carbon monoxide or cyanide poisoning owing to the cherry-pink discolouration of their body tissues.

Another Government Forensic Pathologist Dorothy Njeru told the inquiry team that lab tests would have been necessary to determine the exact percentage of the carbon monoxide poisoning or the presence of the deadly cyanide poison. 

Working in isolation

There were also issues of discrepancy and omission of certain facts in reports filed by different pathologists who examined the bodies.

“One of the pathologist’s report did not also include the fact that all the six crash victims had soot in their windpipe and the extent of burns to the bodies,” said Dr Njeru

The presence of soot is considered important since it indicated that the crash victims were alive and breathing by the time the soot was being emitted, mostly likely from a fierce fire before or after the crash.

The proceedings also revealed how the Government chemists and Forensic pathologists, who should ideally be communicating with each other to boost accuracy of test results, were working in isolation.

Another Government pathologist, Dr Johansen Oduor indicated that he never saw the blood and tissue tests from the Government Chemist until early this month, when he appeared before the Commission to testify.

The test indicated carbon monoxide poisoning in pilot Oyugi’s blood only. His postmortem report said that the deaths were a result of severe injuries from an aviation accident.

Under cross-examination by Ngatia, Dr Oduor said that had he seen the report, his assumption that the deaths of the six individuals were an accident would have been reviewed. 

“I would have taken a fresh look at the bodies with the new information in mind. But unfortunately, I had no benefit of seeing the report, which brought a new angle into the equation,” he said.

In her testimony, Dr Njeru expressed concern about the collection of samples from the scene of the accident, saying it was done by only one Forensic pathologist (Dr Oduor) when the work should have been done by a team of pathologists to be able to collect quality and varied samples for analysis.

It had emerged that blood and tissue samples were taken from only three of the six crash sparking concern from lawyers of the crash victims.

In defence, Dr Oduor said, in aviation accidents, samples are usually taken from pilots and not passengers, but family lawyers insisted that all the victims should have been covered owing to the national profile of the crash.

Under questioning from Mayani Sankale (for the family of the late Tonkei), Oduor had also admitted that too little blood samples may have been taken from the victims due to the severe incineration of their bodies.

Asked to recommend about improvements or reforms needed in the Government Forensic Pathology sector to boost accuracy and enhance judicial investigations, Dr Njeru, and Dr Kalsi said the country needs to urgently establish a National Forensic Teaching, Referral and Research Centre to bring all forensic pathology work under one roof to co-ordinate investigations and reduce margins of error.