Police Probe Every Detail To Find Cause Of Mutula Death

Kethi Kilonzo (right), daughter of late Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo, leaves the Lee Funeral Home with a relative on Saturdaynight, after the deceased’s body was transferred there:

BY MEDIAMAX DIGITAL TEAM
MONDAY, 29 APRIL, 2013

Police were turning over every single detail, however small, in their bid to find out the cause of death of former Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo. A homicide unit was assembled by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to rule out every possible angle of investigation, even before post-mortem is conducted on the body today. The Maanzoni home off Mombasa highway where he died was sealed off and detectives took statements from five workers who had been at the expansive facility when the Senator died.

The clothes Mutula had been wearing, samples of vomit found on his bedroom sink, bits of all food in the house were taken away for forensic audit. Also to be scrutinised will be all mobile phone communication from his phone to determine if he made any distress calls. No one had reported whether he tried to seek help before he died. Last evening, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Ndegwa Muhoro revealed details of the last moments of Mutula were being taken into account as detectives attempted to piece together the full picture before the death.

A homicide team probes death by any other cause, even when it appears to have occurred naturally. In a telephone conversation with The People yesterday, the investigations chief indicated the autopsy on the body will be conducted today. Mutula’s brother-in-law Chris Musau also confirmed the postmortem would be conducted today at the Lee Funeral home. “We have collected various samples from the house, including his clothing and vomit and they have been taken to the Government Chemist for further analysis,” said Muhoro. Muhoro called on Kenyans to exercise restraint and stop speculating on the cause of the Makueni the Senator’s death, until official results are released. Police sources indicated officers from the Homicide unit at the DCI headquarters had been assembled to lead the probe. Detectives who had already sealed off the ranch were by yesterday evening trying to re-enact the events between Mutula’s arrival at his palatial home and at the time his body was found lifeless on Saturday.

Those privy to the investigation told The People detectives were also out to establish whether the Senator ate a meal of githeri and nyama choma that he had ordered and whether the meals were prepared in the house. Other areas of interest to detectives were whether Mutula could have had medical problems in the night, or before. They also wanted to know whether he made a distress call to anyone before his body was discovered motionless in the morning. “These are all factors we are out to establish, whether the meals were prepared by his cook or ordered from outside. We are also out to establish the last persons to have talked to him and what he said,” one of the detectives said. In a last interview he granted to K24 on April 18, Mutula who did not shy away from expressing his views strongly, opposed the move to bring back Coalition for Reform and Democracy (Cord) luminaries back to Parliament. Pushing nomination He declared he outrightly opposed the idea to arm-twist Article 97 by pushing a nominated MP to resign for either Raila Odinga or Kalonzo Musyoka, the Cord leaders. “As the facilitator of the new constitution, I happen to know the legal theory behind Article 97,” he said.

“That is not for category of national leaders. That is a special category of people nominated for purpose other than national leadership. To suggest that we withdraw one of the nominees for either leader will not amend the constitution,” he said. “They don’t qualify under the Disabled; we will have to break one of their legs or arm or something for them to qualify, or we would appeal to God for him to convert them to women or to reduce their age because none of them qualifies,” he said. As if by premonition, he talked of death saying: “There are so many MPs, 290 elected by Kenyans. They (leaders) can either wait for attrition because all of us are human beings, some of us will die and then they can step in.” “Last night I told Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama to slow down because he was insulting the more than 200,000 people who voted for him just to accommodate his party leader,” Mutula said then. “I am not going to Makueni, fight the boss (Makueni loser John Harun Mwau, nicknamed Boss), become the new boss then all of a sudden without consulting Makueni people say am going to step down.

What sort of nonsense is that?” Meanwhile, leaders continued to condole with family members, relatives and friends of the late Mutula with the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan underscoring the role he played during peace negations after the 2007 post-election violence. “While Mutula will be remembered for the distinction with which he served in both the private and public sectors, I will never forget the essential role he played as a member of the Negotiations Team during the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) process, and its subsequent implementation,” said Annan in his statement. Elsewhere, the chairman of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution Charles Nyachae commended Mutula’s role in the writing and implementation of the new constitution.

The Commission will remember Hon Mutula Kilonzo for the role he played in enabling the country realise the dream of a new Constitution. As Minister for Justice, Hon. Mutula was instrumental in facilitating the implementation of the constitution and providing invaluable support to CIC in developing the legislation and institutional frameworks necessary for the implementation of the Constitution,” said Nyachae.