Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor yesterday said frequent visits by police officers to Sergent Kipyegon Kenei's house could have interfered with the integrity of the scene.

Oduor led a team of other pathologists to his single-room house on Villa Franca estate in Imara Daima, Nairobi.

He said the scene was contaminated and that could have bungled investigations.

With the house having been cordoned off as a crime scene since the body was discovered on February 20, only police officers had the leeway to visit.

Oduor's team was at the scene yesterday to collect swabs for further toxicological analysis as part of the postmortem investigations to determine whether the officer's death was a homicide or suicide.

Kenei's family doctor was also present as well as officials from the government chemist and crime scene police.

Their visit was also to fill some gaps that postmortem and lab work alone could not fill up.

But the chief pathologist decried mishandling of the scene.

He said his work of piecing together facts to unpuzzle the death has been complicated numerous folds.

"There will be a lot of waiting from them [investigators and pathologists]," he said.

Oduor, however, appeared to settle the question of where the officer died and asserted that the house was the primary crime scene, though leaving some window for change of that conclusion by the pending lab reports.

"We think that [the officer's house] was the primary scene where everything happened from what we have seen. However, remember there are many other things coming up. There are lab tests, there are swabs, which can tell us if it was there or not. I cannot answer that 100 per cent, but the thinking is along that line," he explained.

He told the Star that the floor of Kenei's house had a carpet, which could have absorbed blood. Kenei's clothes were soaked in blood besides splatters being on the walls and the ceiling, he added.

A postmortem had concluded that the officer had a pistol put under his chin at skin contact and the trigger pulled, killing him at once. The bullet exited through his forehead.

Oduor said the government was not leaving anything to chance and has approached the probe in a multidisciplinary manner to determine who pulled the trigger and for what motive.

"The laboratory will give us what they have seen... so that we can give a conclusion on what happened to the late Kenei," he said.