Maxine Wahome: Asad hit himself on the door

Asad Khan, the rally driver who died and was buried on Monday, December 19, after sustaining injuries in his home frequently got into spats with his 25-year-old lover, Maxine Wahome, because of the attention she received during rallying events. Beautiful, famous, and good behind the wheel, she won a number of rallying titles, just like her housemate, Khan. Friends and rallying mates told The Nairobian that the 50-year-old man wanted Maxine under his arm, but her status coupled with her charm could not allow it, which often led to fights.

"I remember when we went for the Rwanda Rally, we suspected that one was taking advantage of the other. Most of us flew, but they came by road, and we could see them fighting openly," a close friend said.

The two celebrated motor rally drivers were among hundreds of Kenyans who had travelled to Rwanda for the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally this September.The rally was won by Kenya's Karan Patel."It was an open secret that Khan was not comfortable with the attention she was getting," another source said.

The two lived together for years, spending most of their time at Preston Court. They seemed to be doing fine in public, but the darkness behind the glamour erupted the night ahead of Jamhuri Day when an unknown incident left Khan battling for life. It is alleged that Maxine arrived home that morning of December 12 when Khan was sleeping.A fight broke out. And then a stranger called his brother.

Terrible accident

Asad's younger brother, Adil, told the media that he found his brother "dead" after a stranger called him on Monday and informed him that Khan had had an accident."Your brother has been involved in a terrible accident, and we have taken him to the hospital. He is at the Nairobi Hospital, and you should rush there quickly," the caller said.The brother says he did not know the people who took Khan to the hospital."So I went there, and the nurse called me and decided to tell me straight away. He had passed away. They have put him on a machine to revive him, which they did," the brother said.At that juncture, the medics failed to understand why he had passed away."Apparently because his blood had all drained out and there was none leaking out of the wound on his leg," he said. "But they knew there was an injury because there was blood."As soon as they started infusing blood, it dripped out of the leg. So, there was not even time for the doctor to go and get a bandage. So he got a cloth and wrapped it around his leg. While they were infusing blood, he passed away the second time. Again, they revived him as the blood was going in. Then they came and told me they didn't have enough 'O' positive blood."We need people to bring blood." So we started thinking, and I said, "How much do you need? They said we need around 10 pints of blood. We started calling hospitals, and Avenue Hospital said yes, you can bring him over; we have 'O' positive blood," the brother said.They transferred him from Nairobi Hospital to Avenue Hospital in Nairobi County."When we took him to Avenue, they wheeled him right away into the ICU," he explained.

Liver was dead, kidneys and pancreas were gone

According to the doctors, Khan also had a punctured lung."From what I saw, Khan was beaten," his brother said.He adds that, while on the machines, he was breathing normally. His heart was working very well. His brain was working well."While we were waiting and praying for him to come around, doctors found out that his liver was dead. His kidneys were gone. His pancreas was gone," he Adil stated.Not long after, Khan died.

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A visit to the scene-the house they lived in-by the family, police, and friends showed a 'disturbed' place, where household goods were strewn all over the dining room and there was a pool of blood on the floor and the staircase.

The police said they needed to conduct forensic investigations, find out whether there were accomplices, obtain call data from their mobile phones for analysis, and conduct DNA tests of the blood samples so that they could charge the suspects. Maxine, who says she was the victim, is out on a Sh100,000 bond.What really cut on that night? Was there a third person in the room? Did Khan get cut accidentally?

Maxine: Injuries were self-inflicted

Police from Kilimani Police Station had asked the court to allow them detain rally driver Maxine Wahome for 14 days to complete investigations into the fracas that led to hospitalisation of her boyfriend Asad Khan but senior principal magistrate Bernard Ochoi declined the application and ordered her release. "The court is not persuaded that there are compelling reasons to warrant her pre-trial detention. I direct that she be released on a cash bail of Sh100,000 with condition that she reports to the police station once every Thursday of the week," ruled Ochoi.

Wahome burst to fame in June this year when she became the youngest female driver at 26, to win a World Rally 3 Championship.She was arrested on Thursday last week after Khan's brother made a report to police claiming that he had been assaulted and admitted in a High Dependency Unit after suffering serious injuries during the fight.

Wahome was then presented to court where police applied to detain her for 14 days to complete investigations and to monitor her boyfriend's health.Investigators wanted the two weeks to record statements, subject samples of exhibits collected from the couple's apartment to DNA analysis and examine Wahome's phone for forensic analysis.

But the rally driver through her lawyers opposed the application to detain her, arguing that she was the victim of the attack by her boyfriend. Wahome also denied hurting Khan during the fight, telling the court that the injuries which led to his hospitalisation were self-inflicted after he hit himself on their door.

The magistrate ruled that the reasons given by police to detain her were not compelling and it will be against Wahome's rights to detain her for long without being charged."She is not a flight risk and nothing prevents the police from proceeding with investigations while she is out on bail," ruled Ochoi.On the application by Wahome that she was the victim of domestic violence, the magistrate ruled that it was still premature to determine who assaulted the other and it will be only after investigations are complete.The case will be mentioned on January 12 next year.