Pathologist: I never saw twins’ bodies

A pathologist alleged to have seen the twin babies at the centre of a controversy pitting their parents against Nairobi’s Pumwani Maternity Hospital complicated the investigations on Tuesday when she denied the claim.

Dr Dorothy Njeru, a pathologist at the Ministry of Health, told the Senate Health Committee that City Mortuary officials had only sought her opinion on how to handle a case of suspected negligence.

“The bodies were never presented to me. I did not see them,” said Dr Njeru during a public hearing chaired by Ms Zipporah Kittony at KICC in Nairobi.

Dr Njeru said there was no proper documentation to enable her carry out a postmortem on the bodies that Mr Dedan Kimathi and his wife Jacinta Wanjiku claim were swapped with their twins.

“There are several prerequisites to be met before doing a postmortem. We needed a clinical summary, antenatal care records for the mother, and a representative from the hospital, besides having the matter reported to the nearest police station to obtain a formal police report,” she said.

The other committee members included Dr Wilfred Machage (Migori, ODM), Ms Mvita Mshenga (Nominated, URP) and Ms Catherine Mukite (Nominated, Ford-Kenya).

DECLINED TO PERFORM

Dr Machage said the committee had previously been told that the bodies were removed from a box and placed on the table in the mortuary for the postmortem but the pathologist on duty declined to perform it.

As a result, Dr Njeru was asked to appear before the committee over fears that the babies born on January 6, might have been swapped when the box was first opened before being returned to the storage area.

Mr Gerald Obwoge, a mortician who was on duty that day, said although the box had been removed in readiness for the postmortem, he never opened it and was not sure about its contents.

Dr Machage said: “There is a lacuna that cannot be explained in the handling of the bodies at the mortuary.’’

He warned that the committee might recommend further investigations by the security officers.

Ms Kittony said the committee had collected a lot of information and would prepare a report to be submitted to the Senate for debate.

Pumwani Medical Superintendent Omondi Kumba said the answer to the missing babies’ saga lies with the mortuary, saying they had acknowledged receiving the bodies.

He accused the mortuary of presenting different corpses from the ones handed to them for postmortem and the DNA tests.

Government pathologist Johansen Oduor did a DNA test, which confirmed the babies were not twins and were not related to the couple.

Dr Kumba questioned why the committee was reluctant to cross-examine Dr Njeru and the employee who carried the box containing the bodies.

Eventually, the committee bowed to pressure and started investigating them and the claims that they were different views about the colour of the box.