Bid to stop Wanjiru book sales

The widow of the late Olympic champion Samwel Wanjiru has threatened to stop the launch of a book that claims the athlete was murdered, saying it will damage her character.

The suit by Terezah Njeri could potentially delay the sale of Dutch author Frits Conijn’s book, Death Runner, in Kenya.

Ms Njeri lawyer Ndegwa Wahome said the allegations contained in the book will permanently taint Ms Njeri’s character thereby adversely affecting her ability to bring up her two children, Anne Wanjiru and Simon Njoroge.

Mr Ndegwa maintained that no one killed Wanjiru and his death has been exhaustively investigated by police and pathologists who concluded that it was caused by an accidental fall from the balcony of the athlete’s house in Nyahururu.

Murder allegations

The book however, claims that Wanjiru was murdered.

“For a man who had the opportunity to interview everyone who was on the scene that day to deliberately change his story is defamatory and libelous,” he said.

The lawyer said he will seek to have sections of the book expunged and sue the authors for damages.

In his first interview since the death , Mr Ndegwa identified sections of the book he claimed were false and “malicious.”

For instance, he said he was the one who requested Wanjiru to travel to Nyahururu so that the champion could pay him his legal fees. The lawyer was representing the champion in a case in which Wanjiru had been charged with illegal possession of a rifle.

Mr Ndegwa had conversed with Wanjiru’s Italian manager Federico Rosa over the matter and the manager agreed to remit the legal fees via Wanjiru’s account.

“For the author to claim Ms Njeri organised for Wanjiru to travel to Nyahururu is hogwash,” said the advocate.

Distorted facts

Mr Ndegwa asserted that the widow also travelled to Nyahururu to meet her husband and visit her gynaecologist.

Saying he was shocked by the allegations raised, the lawyer said the book, which is co-authored by Mr Cronijn and Tanzania’s Simon Maziku, distorted “facts” witnessed by a watchman and Ms Jane Nduta, a waitress.

Ms Nduta was locked inside Wanjiru’s bedroom by Ms Njeri on that fateful day as the wife walked out of the house threatening to spill the beans on the athlete’s alleged extra-marital affair with the waitress.

Wanjiru opened the door leading to the balcony and continued pleading with his wife to come back inside the house.

But Ms Njeri left the compound through the gate, never to see her husband alive again. Wanjiru reportedly jumped to his death, hitting the concrete floor with the back of his head.

“Why did the author ignore the version of Ms Nduta and the watchman and chose the more juicy and perverted view perpetrated by others who believe Wanjiru was murdered?” asked Mr Ndegwa.

Ms Njeri and the athlete were “living happily” after she withdrew an assault case against Wanjiru, added the advocate.

Contrary to claims contained in the book that a safe confiscated by police from Wanjiru’s house had Sh33 million, Mr Ndegwa clarified that it did not have money and only contained gold medals, Wanjiru’s personal documents as well as land title deeds and vehicle logbooks.

He said the safe was opened in his presence at Nyahururu Police Station and did not contain an illegal firearm as police had earlier believed.

The lawyer accused both writers of adding the safe story so as to give credence to their version of events that Wanjiru’s death was pre-planned.

Mr Ndegwa added that the book distorts the information that Ms Njeri told the author by claiming that she learnt of the death of her husband a day later.

Ms Njeri told Mr Conijn that she was reporting the assault incident at the police station that night when she learnt that Wanjiru had died one hour after she left her residence.

“She crossed over to Nyahururu District Hospital where she found Wanjiru lying on a stretcher and confirmed he was dead,” said the lawyer.

The author, he said, has cooked up parts of the story.