Did you kill him? Lawyer asks late governor Gakuru’s widow

By Purity Wahu

Catherine Gakuru, the first wife of the Late Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru, was on Thursday, October 3, asked at the Nyeri Law Courts whether she planned the death of the former county chief.

Wahome Gakuru died in a road accident on November 7, 2017 at Kabati area on the Nyeri-Nairobi highway. His vehicle hurtled off the road and was pierced by guard rails.

Gakuru bled to death at the scene.

And, now, lawyer Martha Waweru suggests that Catherine had a hand in the governor’s death.

While cross-examining Catherine at the Magistrate’s Court in Nyeri on Thursday, Waweru, who represents Wahome Gakuru’s parents, asked the governor’s widow whether she had planned to kill Gakuru using people close to him, including his then-driver Samson Kinyanjui.

“I am shocked [by Waweru’s question],” Catherine told Magistrate Wendy Kagendo.

“I have never had any interest in killing anyone, including [my now-late husband] Gakuru. My [Christian] faith cannot even allow me to do that,” added Catherine.

The governor’s widow told the court that she was unaware that Gakuru would leave Nyeri for Nairobi in the wee hours of November 7, 2017, and, therefore, there was no way she could plan to have him dead through the car crash.

Lawyer Waweru, who also represents Amada Africa, where Gakuru served as the CEO, further pressed Catherine on her “close” relationship with one Baba Maina, an impostor who claimed to be in charge of the Late governor’s security apparatus.

Waweru said testimonies made before the court thus far shows that Catherine and the so-called Baba Maina were so close to the extent that Baba Maina could visit Catherine at her Runda home with her husband’s knowledge.

Catherine denied the allegations, saying she only came to know about the so-called Baba Maina during the campaigns in the run-up to August 8, 2017 general election.

The court heard that Gakuru and Catherine were not in good terms; and had agreed to live separately beginning 2008.

The public inquest into Gakuru’s death has ten more witnesses lined up, and is scheduled to continue on November 4 and 5, 2019.

Chief government pathologist, Dr Johansen Oduor, had earlier told the court that Gakuru succumbed to severe blood loss and a back injury.

Oduor’s revelations were echoed by Loise Mathina, an intern nurse who received Gakuru at the Thika Level 5 Hospital on November 7, 2017.