Woman linked to JKIA land was abducted, inquest told

Vehicles entering the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

An inquest into the death of an 89-year-old woman at the centre of a controversy involving the JKIA land has been told how she was abducted from her home and kept in a rented house where she was tortured, taken to a mental hospital and left to die at KNH.

Witnesses appearing before chief magistrate HM Nyaga at Makandara Law Courts testified that Beatrice Syokau Kathumba was moved by a court processor server and some other people from her home near Transami, near Mombasa Road, and kept under guard in a rented apartment in Imara Daima Estate.

A step daughter, Litha Kathumbi Kathumba, said she last saw her step-mother in May 2013 when she visited. When she returned later, she found her missing.

“I alerted my sisters and also informed the OCS, Embakasi Police Station. The police told me to be patient and continue looking for her,” Litha testified.

After many days of searching, she received a call from a friend, Joyce Mukonyo with information that Syokau had been found at KNH and that she was dead.

“I went to the mortuary and saw her body. It had injuries on the head which also had dried blood. She had a bruise on the right hand that appeared to have been made by a rope," she told the inquest.

She said that on that day she was accompanied by Joyce Mukaya, Naomi Mbula and Kioko Pius, although she found some strangers, Dickson and Saifa Mutei who wanted Syokau buried right away.

Blocked burial

When she objected to the hurried burial arrangements without ascertaining the cause of death, the body was secretly removed but she still blocked the burial.

When a postmortem was finally done, Litha said,” I was only asked to look at the body then I was chased away".

Some body tissues were removed, she said.

When a second postmortem was carried out, Litha testified that she and her relatives were told to move out of the room. “I suspect my mother was abducted and killed over property. When the burial aborted, the body was taken by the police to Machakos Funeral Home.”

However, when Dickson Wambua, the court process server accused of abducting Syokau, took to the witness stand, he said Syokau had died from HIV-related complications and that he had been loyally serving the deceased since he was introduced to him.

Wambua, who told the court that at one time he worked for Kiluva and Company Advocates, explained that he had been introduced to Syokau by a pastor Yegon in 2002 and later volunteered to serve her by running her errands.

“I agreed to work for her and would take her milk and medicine. She was attending clinic for HIV patients. I would take her to the clinic twice or thrice a month. She did not want her relatives to know her HIV status except Saifa Muteti, Regina and Jacob. She introduced me to them," he says.

According to Wambua, Syokau was referred to Mathari Hospital in 2013 for psychiatric treatment and later requested that she be taken to a better house because of the cold. During this period, he said, he would periodically take her to church and also assisted her in a petition she had filed in court concerning some landmatters.

“We rented a house at Imara Daima. Ndeti, who was close to the deceased would help her financially. He also paid Carloilne Mweni, who was taking care of her," he said.

Wambua testified that when Syokau’s condition deteriorated in 2014, she called  her relatives, and Saifa Muteti came and this is when she said she was to be buried in Mitamboni. The inquest resumes on August 23.