Nairobi News

SportsWhat's Hot

Court told how Wanjiru’s wife locked woman in house


An inquest into the death of Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru was on Monday told that his wife, Triza Njeri, had locked up another woman in their Nyahururu home on May 5, 2011 during the fateful day.

A witness testifying before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Hannah Ndung’u said he helped take the athlete to hospital after allegedly falling off a balcony.

“When we returned, we found a woman had been locked inside the house by his wife Triza Njeri. One officer told me to break the padlock. I went to the garage and fetched a metal bar. We gained access into the locked upper room where we found the woman. Police took her away,” Mr James Kabuku, 22, said.

The witness said he was a training partner of the athlete and had known him for over a year before tragedy struck.

The woman may be called as one of the witnesses in the future, lawyer Muendo Uvyu, for Wanjiru’s mother said.

FALLEN OFF BALCONY

“That night I was a watching a football match at Samuel (Wanjiru’s) second wife’s place. His cousin, who was with me received a call from a watchman at his other home,” the witness said.

He said the cousin informed him that Wanjiru had fallen off the balcony of his house at Muthaiga and immediately rushed to the scene.

“On reaching the gate, we found Wanjiru lying on the ground and there was blood,” the witness said.

Mr Kabuku told the court that as they helped lift the athlete from the ground, a police vehicle came and they took him to Nyahururu  District Hospital.

“The doctors told us to wait outside. I do not know what transpired thereafter,” he said.

Mr Kabuku said that when they returned to the athlete’s home in the same police vehicle, they found a woman locked up in the house by Wanjiru’s wife.

PASSED ON

“We broke the padlock and the woman came out. She was  taken to Nyahururu Police Station,” he said.

Mr Kabuku said that the following morning he accompanied some of his friends to check on Wanjiru and the doctor at the hospital told “us that he had passed on.”

On Monday, a lawyer representing Njeri claimed that “there are people working towards finding her culpable.”

Lawyer Wahome Ndegwa told the magistrate that “some correspondence happened between the mother of the deceased and a pathologist,” who performed Wanjiru’s autopsy and alluded that a different report was presented to the court contrary to what was there initially.

“What was presented before this court is different from the initial report, we ask the court to order that the initial report be part of these proceedings,” the lawyer said as he renewed his application to recall Dr Njue for cross-examination.