NAIROBI: Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior has recorded a statement with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) over claims that his father's postmortem samples were tampered with.
He presented himself at the CID headquarters in Nairobi after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko ordered investigations into the allegations.
The family of the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo wrote to the DPP alleging that unknown persons tampered or interfered with the samples as they were being stored or transported to London for detailed toxicological analysis.
The family's pathologist said last year that toxicology specimens given to him were "opened and possibly contaminated".
Mutula was found dead in his house in Maanzoni, Machakos, on April 27, 2013.
A post-mortem exercise conducted by a group of pathologists in Nairobi led by the family pathologist Ian Calder and Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said Mutula died of a brain heamorrhage.
Their report showed he had suffered massive internal bleeding. "My father's lungs had up to three litres of blood and even when we were doing the postmortem he was bleeding. The doctors said then they did not know what triggered this but added it was out of a substance he ingested and that is what we want to know," said Mutula, the late senator's son.
Calder concluded that Mutula died of "multi-organ haemorrhage due to possible coagulation deficiency". He said Mutula must have consumed something that caused a "catastrophic disturbance of the clotting mechanism".
He was however unable to make a final conclusion on what exactly caused this deficiency, hence the need for further toxicological analysis.
Tuesday, the detectives handling the case said they wanted to know how the samples were handled from the mortuary to the Government Chemist and CID headquarters. They will interrogate the pathologists, courier and police who handled them.
Mutula said Tuesday that officials handling the samples in Nairobi had overstayed with them. "We had timelines in which they were supposed to surrender the samples for further analysis but they took up to eight weeks. There was a form of cover-up or interference and that is why we want to know the manner in which they were released and handled," he said.
Last year, detectives probing the death wanted Mutula Junior to record a statement after finding out that some samples had been removed from his father's home and the senator's body moved.
He said Tuesday that the samples in question were more than 100 which were taken from his father's body after the postmortem for further toxicological analysis.
This was after Dr Oduor admitted that Kenya did not have the capacity to carry out the analysis.
The report then said three sets of toxicology, virology and histology samples were obtained from Mutula's body and at Lee Funeral Home prior to the autopsy.
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Samples collected in duplicate included blood from the femoral vessels, urine, bile, liver, vitreous fluid, stomach and small intestines, muscles, nail cuttings and hair cuttings.
The samples were to be stored separately and delivered to London but they were delivered in one package and opened, Mutula said Tuesday.
Mutula's sister, Kethi Kilonzo, claimed on Saturday that her father's death was not natural.
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