A postmortem conducted on the body of seasoned journalist Gatonye Gathura has now revealed that he was killed through strangulation.
The postmortem that was conducted at Naivasha sub-county hospital mortuary indicated that the deceased suffered a painful death before the body was dumped near Naivasha town.
The health and science writer was strangled using a laptop charging cable while the killers hit him with a blunt object at the back of the head before killing him.
This came as the family of Gatonye called for justice noting that he would be laid to rest on Thursday in the family’s home in Limuru.
According to government pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu who led the postmortem, Gatonye died from lack of air after the killers used the wire to strangle him.
He added that the body could have stayed for up to one week on the scene before it was found by members of the public and collected by police.
“The report clearly indicates that the victim was murdered using a wire and there is an injury at the back of the head inflicted by a blunt object,” he said.
A nephew to the deceased Dr Lawrence Nderu termed the death as inhumane adding that Gatonye died a very painful death.
He said that the family was still in darkness as to the motive of the murder adding that they were waiting for police to finish their investigations.
“He died a very painful death as the killers used a laptop wire and we hope that those responsible will never have peace and that they will be arrested,” he said.
Nderu added that they planned to lay the deceased in their home in Limuru on Thursday after transferring the body from Naivasha to Tigoni mortuary in Limuru.
The body that had a wire around the neck was found dumped near Kihoto estate on the 26th of October and booked in the mortuary as unknown male until last week when it was identified.
In the last couple of months, sparse land along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu Road has been used as a dumping site for persons killed elsewhere.
In all the incidents, the victims’ majority of whom are men have been killed through strangulation and did not have any identification documents.
Gathura, who wrote for The Standard and Nation in the past, ran a Health and Science blog called Rocket Science (rocketsciences.co.ke).
He owned the website, whose content touched on reproductive health, Covid-19, mental health, common diseases, health research, among others.