Bodyguard had two bullet wounds in the chest, postmortem shows

Slain bodyguard to Meru County Speaker Joseph Kaberia has bullet wounds on his chest that occasioned his death, a postmortem on his body has shown.

One bullet raptured his heart causing massive internal bleeding. The two bullets exited to the back. The postmortem was conducted at the Kenyatta University mortuary in the presence of the family of the slain officer.

A team of detectives investigating the incident plans to revisit the scene where the shooting happened on July 21.

The team intends to reconstruct the scene and establish the angle of the shooting. Police Constable Samuel Munga was with his driver when the shooting happened in unclear circumstances.

The driver who is a licensed gun holder sustained an injury on his left leg and is still in hospital. Police said they intend to talk to him over the shooting.

The car they were travelling in had a single bullet hole, according to police. The speaker was not in the car at the time of the attack.

A woman claiming to be the driver’s sister told police she received a call from the driver at around 3am. He told her he wanted to spend the night at her place.

When he arrived, she went to open the gate but heard gunshots and dashed back inside her house. The woman’s neighbours later called police.

When they arrived, they found the driver lying next to Munga with a bullet wound in his leg. Munga was still alive but writhing in pain from the chest wound. He was later pronounced dead on arrival in hospital.

It is not clear where Munga and the driver had been before they went to Kamiti Corner where they were attacked.

The County Media Relations officer Mercy Nthuku said Munga was shot after he and the driver were confronted by thugs.

“We have been told that the speaker had been dropped off at his residence. The driver was dropping off the bodyguard when the assailants confronted them,” she said.

A further assessment of the scene established Munga’s pistol had 15 bullets indicating he did not fire or use the weapon.

The driver’s gun had three bullets. He had fired 20 bullets from his pistol whose spent cartridges were recovered.

Police said they also recovered the driver’s civilian firearm certificate and four Ceska magazines.