Tests show no traces of alcohol in lover of Raphael Tuju’s wife Tony Ogunda’s blood samples

By MARTIN MUTUA and CYRUS OMBATI

KENYA: Investigators are puzzled after tests on blood and urine samples taken from the body of Tony Ogunda revealed no traces of alcohol.

Some members of the team are also questioning a delay to deliver two key samples for toxicological testing.

This is the latest unexplained detail in the probe to find out who killed the 24-year-old lover of former Cabinet Minister Raphael Tuju’s wife. Initial reports claimed Ogunda had gone on a drinking spree the day before his lifeless body was discovered.

He shot to national limelight when he was identified in court documents as the lover of Tuju’s wife. He was found dead with head injuries in a house in Nairobi’s Upperhill area owned by the former minister. The cause of the head injuries remains unclear.

A suspect in the case whose account of Ogunda’s final days raised police suspicions was recently released on bail as investigations continue.

Sources told The Standard On Saturday that detectives investigating the death took three urine samples and three blood samples for testing to establish whether or not he was drunk at the time of his death.

“I can tell you for fact that all the six samples have revealed no traces of alcohol,” a source at the Government Chemist disclosed. DNA analysis is being carried out on the late Ogunda’s liver and blood to establish whether the six samples belonged to him or not.

At the same time the sources also disclosed that detectives took a syringe and a bottle that was found next to Ogunda’s body for further analysis at the Government Chemist laboratories.

But, interestingly, the detectives are said to have taken the samples on Friday last week, eight days after the first samples. It is not clear why detectives waited so long to furnishing the samples and why they were not presented together with the other samples on July 4. Analysis on the syringe and bottle is ongoing.

“We are analysing whether the two have any connection to the findings that we get from the body samples,” said out laboratory sources.

Uncooperative

Meanwhile, police say Ogunda’s friends have become uncooperative and some have refused to honour summons to record statements in the past week. One officer says there seems to be no urgency on the case.

“After the release of Cosmas Okoth (a nephew of Tuju’s wife) who was the prime suspect in the case, it is as good as it is dead,” said an officer aware of the probe. Okoth was living in the Upperhill residence where Ogunda was found dead and they were drinking together on the fateful day. He was held and presented in court as a person of interest on the basis of circumstantial evidence at that time.

Okoth, a student at Utalii College, had Sh30,000 in his mobile phone at the time of the incident. He claimed a fight broke out at the home earlier in the week where the door to a servant’s quarters was broken. The court set him free after police said they had not found any evidence to link him to Ogunda’s death.

The officers want to know if the deceased shared any vital information with his friends before he died. They summoned Ogunda’s friends who were partying with him in his final weeks to show up at the Kilimani Police Station to record their statements yesterday but they did not show up.

Internal bleeding

“We have requested a number of them and we are waiting for them to show up so that they can give their information on this death,” said Kilimani head of CID George Ojuka.

A post mortem on Ogunda’s body revealed internal bleeding to his brain. “He had trauma to his head which is consistent with a blunt force,” said government pathologist Dr Peter Ndegwa. “The deceased had internal bleeding to the brain.”

Police said they are almost done investigating the incident. Ogunda, 24, was accused of being a lover to Tuju’s wife Ruth Akinyi. The former officer had been named in a divorce petition filed by Tuju, who is seeking to end his 27-year marriage to Akinyi, with whom the former presidential aspirant has three children. In the divorce case, Tuju accuses his wife of cheating with the former GSU officer who was attached to his home.

Police have so far taken statements from 14 people including Tuju, his wife Akinyi, her sister Sabina, his son Mano, a girlfriend to Ogunda, Esther Okumu and Okoth together with his girlfriend Tabitha Wangare.

On May 31, Ogunda was charged with trespassing at Tuju’s home. He had another case in court where he has been accused of sending the former minister an offensive message and being in possession of fake currency. He denied a second charge of being in possession of 18 pieces of papers resembling Sh1,000 note. He was out on a cash bail of Sh150, 000.

Sources said analysis on the syringe and a bottle found with some drug inside were ongoing to ascertain whether the contents could have been used in the killing of Ogunda.

 “We are analyzing whether the two have any connection to the findings that we get from the body samples of the late Ogunda and so far we are still in the process and nothing has come out,” added the sources.