What autopsies reveal about Kiambu family murders
All the five people brutally murdered in Kiambu County died from multiple stab wounds highly likely inflicted by the same person, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor has said.
Mr Oduor said the four family members and their farmhand suffered similar injuries – multiple stab wounds to the chest and multiple cases of blunt force trauma to the head.
“They were mainly stab wounds on the chest. Some of them had slash wounds on the neck,” he said.
He went on to say that the great vessels of the neck were severed leading to significant loss of blood that eventually caused their deaths.
“The injuries looked pretty similar and measured almost the same. The measurements of the stab wounds varied between three to four centimetres,” he told reporters after the exams on Monday.
The pathologist said it is highly likely that the weapon used was the same and that if not so, the objects must have been very similar.
He did not rule out the possibility that there was more than one attacker but said, “It is most likely that one person conducted the murders.”
Other findings
Lawrence Njoroge Warunge and his girlfriend Sarah Muthoni are the suspects in the murders committed on the night of January 5 in Karura Village, Kiambu County.
Lawrence is the prime suspect in the killing of his father Nicholas Njoroge Warunge, his mother wife Ann Wanjiku, their adopted nephew Maxwell Njenga, his brother Christian Njenga Njoroge and farmhand James Kinyajui Wambaa on the night of January 5 in Karura Village, Kiambu County.
Mr Oduor said the father and brother suffered the most injuries and that the mother’s upper arms were broken, showing she blocked the attacker’s blows.
All victims suffered blunt force trauma to the head, he said, adding Mr Kinyanjui must have been caught by surprise and therefore put up the least resistance.
The post-mortem exam found that the father did not break his legs while running, as reported, and that he had many head injuries.
Mr Kinyanjui will be buried on Wednesday at Gathiga Cemetery while the Warunge family will be buried on Saturday in Karura Village.