Tears from the grave: How veteran journalist's last moments revealed by autospy

Piece by: ANTONY GITONGA

30 November 2021

An autopsy conducted on the body of veteran journalist Gatonye Gathura shows that he died from a trauma from the back of the head and strangulation.

The journalist whose body was found dumped along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road last month died of lack of air to his brain which was caused by strangulation using a laptop wire.

This emerged when government pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu accompanied by relatives conducted a postmortem on the body of the deceased on Monday in Naivasha sub-county hospital mortuary.

According to the pathologist, the killers used the wire which was exerted around the neck, denying him oxygen and leading to his death.

Addressing the press after the postmortem, the doctor noted that there was also an injury at the back of the head inflicted by a blunt object.

“There was a struggle which saw the deceased hit with a blunt object at the back of the head as the killers used the wire to kill him,” he said.

Ngulungu added that it was not clear as to how many days the body could have stayed in the bushes before members of the public spotted it.

A nephew to the deceased Dr Lawrence Nderu said that they were still grappling in the darkness as to the motive behind the murder.

He termed the death as beastly, noting that his uncle died a very painful death as he tried to fight off the killers.

“We still don’t know the motive behind the beastly murder and we hope that police will help unearth the killers,” he said.

Flanked by relatives, Nderu said that they would lay to rest the journalist at his family’s home in Tigoni Limuru on Thursday.

“The postmortem has proven our fears that Gatonye was murdered through strangulation and we hope those responsible will never have peace,” he said.

The body that had a wire around the neck was found dumped near Kihoto estate on the 26th of October and booked in the mortuary as an unknown male until last week when it was identified.

The family only came to learn of the death after police collected his fingerprints which were positively identified by the registrar of persons.

Before his death, Gatonye was a contributor for the Standard newspaper and ran a website “Rocket science’ that concentrated on reproductive health and mental health.