These are the people questioned by the police over Nkaissery’s death.
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| A file photo of the Late Interior CS (Rtd) Major-General Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery who passed on in the wee hours of Saturday morning. |
A security consultant who was with former Interior Cabinet
secretary Joseph Nkaissery moments before his sudden death, has recorded
statements with the police as sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal
Investigations headed by Nairobi DCI boss Nicholas Kamwende pieced together
every detail of his final hours.
Working on all angles and leaving nothing to chance, the
detectives have questioned several other people believed to have come into
contact with the late CS, among them waiters who served him at the Bomas of
Kenya bar.
His Karen home and Bomas of Kenya yesterday remained cordoned
off to the public as they are still considered scenes of investigation. Closed-circuit
television CCTV footage from both scenes would also be reviewed.
The detectives zeroed in on the Bomas of Kenya after it
emerged Nkaissery was a regular patron of the iconic establishment, secluded
and only four kilometres from his Karen home. On account of his
profile, Nkaissery enjoyed the services of a special meeting room where he
would meet friends and be served meals and drinks.
Investigations indicate on the fateful day, Nkaissery
arrived at Bomas around 7pm and proceeded to his ‘reserved’ room. He left at
around 8.45pm, after meeting with a friend identified as a retired KDF Colonel
Francis Mugambi and National Land Commission chairman Mohammed Swazuri.
Mugambi had been with the CS for close to two hours and
enjoyed glasses of wine. Mugambi left the CS at Bomas. The CS had indicated
that he wanted to be home early in time for the 9 o’clock news, a source close
to the probe revealed.
At least 10 people who interacted with the Late CS at the
Bomas of Kenya Lounge, at his Karen home where he fell ill and at Karen
Hospital where he was pronounced dead at around 1am, have been questioned by
police. Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro also revealed on
Sunday that police bodyguards assigned to the CS were also being questioned by
detectives pursuing a line of sudden death.
Sources familiar with the probe intimated that Nkaissery’s
office staff, four attendants of the Bomas of Kenya VIP lounge where the
minister visited before he went home and security consultant Francis Mugambi,
who was a close friend of the CS, were among those who have recorded
statements.
Others who have been probed include the house help, a driver and a bodyguard who took him
to hospital. They also spoke to a number of officials at Karen Hospital
including Dr. James Mageria, who confirmed to them the CS was dead when he was
taken there. Those questioned were asked not to share any information with
journalists.
(Related story: Retracing NKAISERRY’s last moments!)
Police said the CS had dinner with his family and retired to
bed at around 10pm. At around 12am, Saturday, he complained of chest pains and
shortly afterwards collapsed. Family members drove him to the Karen Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.
The family has told the police that the CS was healthy and
not on any medication at the time of his death.
However, a day after the death and after investigations
commenced, associates of the minister yesterday raised eyebrows in the manner
the probe was being carried out as they queried his last moments.
Cause of death.
“Police are not ruling out anything, all possible causes of
his death are being explored including natural and unnatural causes,” said the
source. The autopsy on the minister’s body to establish the cause of his death
is scheduled for 10am today at Lee Funeral Parlour.
The postmortem had been planned to take place Sunday but was
postponed to today, to, according to sources, await one of his sons to return
from the US. A team of pathologists was
ready for the exercise at the Lee Funeral Home Sunday morning but was informed
of the decision. The son arrived in Nairobi Sunday afternoon.
Nkaissery’s widow, Hellen, who was admitted to hospital
after she developed high blood pressure following the CS’s death, was expected
to be discharged Sunday. But even as a postmortem is being awaited today, the
widening scope of preliminary investigations suggests authorities are not
leaving anything to chance over Nkaissery’s sudden death.
There has been speculation that Nkaissery could have died
from one of three causes; a heart attack, embolism (a blocked artery caused by
a foreign body such as a blood clot or an air bubble) or that he could have
been poisoned. On Saturday, detectives collected samples for forensic
investigation from various places the late CS visited the previous day,
including his office at Nyayo House, his Karen home and the Bomas restaurant.
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