Doctors differ on cause of Roy Harry Veevers' death

Pathologist Dr. Andrew Gachie testifies during the third day of the Inquest of the late British, Harry Veevers at the Mombasa Law Court in Mombasa County on Wednesday 30th November 2016. Photo/Kelvin Karani

The mystery surrounding the sudden death of British tycoon Roy Harry Veevers on Valentines Day 2013 in Mombasa has deepened after pathologists gave conflicting testimonies on the cause of his death.

Yesterday, a pathologist declared that the "cause of death of Veevers' is not known", less than 24 hours after another pathologist who conducted a postmortem on Roy's body told a judicial inquest that there is scientific evidence to show that the Briton was poisoned.

Two years ago the High Court ordered a postmortem which was conducted by three Kenyan pathologists, including former chief government pathologist Moses Njue. It established that there was poison in the soils around Roy's stomach in the grave. Nine months after, Azra's children sought the services of British forensic expert Richard Alexander Allan for toxicology analysis of the soils and tissues harvested from Roy's grave.

Dr Allan's report discounted the possibility that Roy was poisoned and even said that no traces of cyhalothrin pesticide were detected after the exhumation. He however said there was a possibility the poison had deteriorated in storage after nine months.

On Tuesday, Dr Njue testified as an expert witness, analysing Dr Allan's report and the suicide theory. Dr Njue dismissed suicide as an improbable cause of death and declared Dr Allan's findings as scientifically improbable and questionable.

Yesterday, Andrew Gachii who was also hired by Azra dismissed Njue's version, terming his conclusions unrealistic.

Dr Gachii told Mombasa Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti that Njue's opinion that Roy was killed by poison was incorrect.