The man who claimed Ouko committed suicide

By MUTINDA MWANZIA

The death of former chief government pathologist Dr Jason Ndaka Kaviti has brought down the curtain on the life of a man whose verdict on the murder of minister Dr Robert Ouko and tourist Julie Ward puzzled friend and foe.

Kaviti passed on last Wednesday night at the Nairobi Hospital after battling a long illness.

The father of three suffered a stroke five years ago and was admitted at the hospital last month following health complications.

Dr Jason Ndaka Kaviti

Born in Ndumbi village, Kisau location, Makueni County, Kaviti was thrust into the limelight following the death of Ouko, then Kenya’s colourful and flamboyant Foreign Affairs Minister on the night of February 12, 1990.

Ouko was dragged from his home and murdered in cold blood and his charred remains were later "discovered" away from his Koru home in Got Alila four days after his disappearance. Countrywide riots erupted as the State fumbled and attempted to explain the murder.

Kaviti, then the Chief Government Pathologist, explained that Ouko committed suicide. It was a shocking statement that stunned Kenyans. How Ouko managed to shoot himself in the head, douse his body with petrol and then set himself ablaze left many perplexed.

Fifteen years later, Kaviti who appeared before the Gor Sunguh-led Parliamentary Select Committee probe on the murder of Ouko, disowned the suicide theory he had advanced. Kaviti confirmed before the team that the "suicide theory" was indeed manufactured.

On February 19, 1990, due to mounting pressure the Government announced that three detectives from Scotland Yard led by Superintendent John Troon would take over the investigation.

Dr Ian West, a Forensic Pathologist from Guys and St Thomas Hospitals, London, accompanied them. West concluded that the injuries suffered by Ouko were not consistent with suicide, but rather he had been shot after his right leg had been broken and the body set on fire.

West concluded, Ouko’s "death should be investigated as a case of homicide". He had been murdered.

Change report

Again, Kaviti’s name prominently featured in an inquest into the death of a British photographer, Ward, whose burnt and charred remains were found in the Masai Mara Game Reserve in September 1988.

During the inquest in 2004, a pathologist who examined Ward’s remains alleged he was forced to change his report by the authorities to cover up her murder.

Dr Adel Shaker, a forensic expert for the Kenyan police, revealed he came to the "certain conclusion" that Ward had fallen foul of a killer who had burnt her body and had not killed by wild animals or struck by lightning. Kenyan authorities initially insisted she had either committed suicide or been killed by wild animals.

The death of Ward led her father John Ward, a hotelier from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, to begin a long and unsuccessful campaign to bring her killers to justice.

Shaker stated how Kaviti, then Director of Public Health, changed his descriptions of the injuries.

"Dr Kaviti took the report and held it and I heard him say ‘no, no, no’. I knew he was intending to change the report," said Shaker.

He said he later read a newspaper report, saying Ward had been eaten by wild animals, which he "knew to be untrue".

Yesterday, family members and friends and well-wishers met at Kaviti’s residence along Riara Road to make plans for his burial.

Controversial: The Julie Ward Case

Dr Adel Shaker, the pathologist who examined the remains of the Julie Ward after she was killed in a Kenyan game park, told an inquest he was forced to change his report to cover up her murder.

Shaker revealed the campaign of intimidation he was subjected to after he came to the "certain conclusion" that Ward had fallen foul of a killer who had burnt her body — rather than wild animals or a lightning strike.

Within days of telling friends of Mr Ward that the clean fractures to Julie’s remains had been made by a sharp instrument, his boss, Dr Jason Kaviti, had paid a visit to his office demanding to see his report...he didn’t like it.

When a copy of the autopsy report was eventually seen by Mr Ward it was crudely altered.