Family and friends of the late Prof. Gilbert Ogutu will have to wait longer to know what caused his death, after the much anticipated postmortem failed to yield conclusive results.
Prof Ogutus’ lifeless body was found dangling from a window with a leso on the neck on Sunday morning at his Bondo home.
On Monday, the public together with family and friends gathered at Bondo Sub County Hospital mortuary where postmortem was scheduled to be done before the body was to be transferred to Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu.
The death of Prof. Ogutu, a University of Nairobi don, has drawn interest from far and wide given his connections in the academia and in political arena having served as the acting Secretary General of Luo Council of Elders for more than 12 years.
The public was however, made to wait for more than 8 hours before the arrival of Consultant Pathologist, Dr. Dickson Muchana from the neibouring Kakamega County at 6:30 pm after the family objected that the postmortem could not be done by a doctor from the facility.
The commencement of the postmortem by Dr. Muchana was however, delayed after members of Ogutus’ first and second families were engaged in heated arguments about whom Dr. Muchana should take directives from, and at one time children of the late Ogutu`s first wife were calling for the postponement of the exercise, citing alleged serious interference by the deceased`s second wife, Emelda Ogutu.
Sanity was however restored after the pathologist managed to calm down the two sides and opting to hear their concerns separately before allowing representatives from the two divides to witness the autopsy.
Dr. Muchana addressed the media after two hours of autopsy and announced that he had inconclusive results and requested for more time to conduct additional tests promising to release the results within the next three weeks.
“We’ve done an exhaustive autopsy and for now, I would say that my findings are inconclusive. I’m still working closely with the police to give me additional information,” Dr. Muchana explained.
He added that they conducted body examination but could not determine the cause of death.
Dr Muchana further explained that they will carry out histology examination and the results would be out in three weeks’ time.
“We have taken a number of samples to establish cause of death. As of now, we have agreed nothing tangible was found to explain cause of death,” added Dr. Muchana.
Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells. Accurate diagnosis of diseases usually requires histopathological examination of cells.
Kennedy Oduor, a family member who was present throughout the autopsy, said it was a tedious process, which lasted for more than two hours.
“The fact that autopsy results were unable to establish the cause of death is worrying, but we are convinced that the pathologist did his work professionally and we are waiting for the results as he had explained,” said Oduor.
Even though initial reports indicated Ogutu may have killed himself, police said they have opened investigations to establish if there is a possibility of homicide in the case.
By Brian Ondeng’
