Nairobi News

The wife of the late Olympic marathon star Samuel Wanjiru was involved in a heated argument with a woman she found on her matrimonial bed moments before the athlete’s death, an inquest heard on Monday.

Ms Triza Njeri had walked into her bedroom in their Nyahururu maisonette on the night of May 15, 2011 only to find a woman, who claimed to be Wanjiru’s friend, on the bed.

Former police detective Isaac Onyango, who was involved in investigating Wanjiru’s death, told Nairobi chief magistrate Daniel Ogembo that the woman had also demanded to know who Ms Njeri was.

“As she entered the room, she (Wanjiru’s wife) was confronted by a lady on their bed who asked her who she was,” Mr Onyango said.

Ms Njeri told the woman to get an answer from the late athlete “who was by then asleep on the bed.”

HARSH WORDS

The detective said that as the two women exchanged harsh words, a scuffle ensued and the woman managed to subdue Ms Njeri.

Wanjiru’s wife however managed to free herself and walked out of the bedroom, locking the door behind her.

Mr Onyango told the inquest that after interrogating a security guard who was manning Wanjiru’s home, he gathered that the athlete had driven home around midnight. But the guard “could not verify  whether Wanjiru was accompanied by another person because the car was heavily tinted.”

The security guard, during interrogation, told the detective that Ms Njeri was dropped home that night by an unidentified driver. Upon seeing her husband’s vehicle parked inside the compound, she invited the driver to enter the house to greet her husband.

But Wanjiru was not in the sitting room and the driver left soon after.

WIFE RUSHED OUT

The guard shortly afterwards saw Ms Njeri rushing towards the gate as Wanjiru kept calling her from the balcony of their bedroom.

“The watchman told me the deceased appeared at the balcony urging her wife to come back, but she refused to turn back and instead walked out of the compound,” the detective said.

The guard told police that Wanjiru, after seeing his wife leave, called him from the balcony, instructing him to look for ” a key”.

Shortly after, the guard heard the sound of a falling object.

The detective said the woman who was in Wanjiru’s bedroom on the fateful night had been picked up from Kawa’s Falls restaurant where she worked. The late athlete had walked into the restaurant at around 11pm and ordered for “fried eggs.”

“She gave me an account of her movement with the deceased, from her working place to Jimrock restaurant and then to the residence,” the detective testified.

The late Wanjiru is suspected to have been murdered at his palatial Nyahururu home.

SUICIDE RULED OUT

Before the inquest, police had said Mr Wanjiru jumped out of his balcony and was picked from the ground while still alive before being rushed to hospital where he died within an hour.

But a pathologist has since ruled out “suicide” and told the inquest that the athlete was hit with a blunt object outside his house after he jumped or fell from the balcony.

Former government pathologist Mr Moses Njue in his testimony told the inquest that the athlete was attacked shortly after he jumped or after being pushed off the balcony, and may have died on impact from the blunt object trauma.

The doctor ruled out a “possible suicide theory” the police advanced after the 2011 incident.

Monday’s proceedings were adjourned to July 4 and 5 to allow the witness to refresh his mind.