Baby Pendo died due to internal bleeding, court told

Baby Pendo with her mother Lenser Achieng while she was admitted at The Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu. She died due to police brutality. [File, Standard]

The six-month old baby Samantha Pendo who made headlines at the peak of last year’s post elections chaos died as a result of internal bleeding, a court has heard.

Yesterday, Dr Sam Oula, a Consultant Pediatrician at Aga Khan Hospital told the court that the infant suffered from a blunt trauma caused by a blunt object.

The pediatrician’s account concurred with post mortem findings that indicated that the infant died of internal bleeding.

"The cause of death was bleeding in the brain. It was caused by blunt trauma, “said Dr Oula to the court, explaining that blunt trauma is an injury caused by a blunt object that occupies a bigger surface area.

He was testifying during the inquest which is seeking to find justice for the infant in August last year which was ordered by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

Last year, a government pathologist Dickson Mchana in his report indicated that the baby died of internal bleeding after severe injuries on the head.

And in the inquest to establish her killers, several witnesses have been lined up to take the stand with three more expected to testify before senior resident magistrate court Beryl Omollo.

Yesterday however, Dr Oula told the court that when the deceased was taken for treatment, she was unconscious and had a swelling on the right side of the head.

He noted that scans conducted on the child before being taken to the Intensive Care Unit indicated that she suffered irreversible brain damage as a result of the internal bleeding.

“She was not responding to treatment and the scans showed that the injury affected the part of the brain responsible for supporting life, “he said.

Pendo died at Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu on August 15, 2017, three days after she was allegedly attacked by anti-riot police in their Nyalenda house during skirmishes that followed the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as winner of the August 8 presidential election.

Early this year, Lenser Achieng, baby Pendo’s mother who was the first witness to take the stand recounted the painful ordeal her family went through the night they lost their baby.