Turkey-based doctors who had given the family of former Garissa Finance minister, Idriss Mukhtar, the green light to fly him to the Mediterranean country for further treatment have revealed that the removal of a bullet lodged in his brain may be too risky.
K24 Digital has established that Mukhtar, who was shot in the head in Kileleshwa, Nairobi in May 2018, had been flown to Turkey in March 2020 where he stayed until December and was flown back into the country and taken to his mother's home in Garissa County.
The former minister's father, Aden Mukhtar, said that the family decided to move him to Garissa since it was becoming too expensive to care of him in the city.
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“After he came back from Turkey, we decided that he would go and stay in Garissa because life in Nairobi was very expensive for us,” Aden told K24 Digital, adding that he had been forced to convert the room his son was occupying into a medical ward.
Aden said that doctors in Turkey told them that it would be hard to remove the bullet.
He said that it was very expensive to take care of his son in Turkey as he needs to have company wherever he is.
“I had lots of hope that, at last, we had found the solution to what has been a challenge to us as a family. However, the sad news is that it seems it will be hard to remove the bullet from his brain,” he said.
Aden asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss, George Kinoti, to personally take up the matter and ensure that the people behind the attempted murder are brought to justice.
He revealed that his once healthy son can only now breathe, take liquids and make small gestures.
“Unlike in the beginning when was fully unconscious, now he can make moves and I hope that he will get better,” he said.
Following the shooting, the family took him to India in July 2019 but doctors were unable to remove the bullet.
According to his father, doctors in India also ruled out the possibility of having the bullet removed, saying that it was a risky procedure.
The former Finance CEC and insider to former Garissa Governor Nathif Jama was on August 19, 2018, shot in his car at the parking lot of a restaurant near the Kileleshwa mosque moments after attending evening prayers.
He was taken to a city hospital where he spent over a month in the Intensive Care Unit.
The main suspect in the attempted murder, David Mwai, who was captured by CCTV footage pulling the trigger, died days after he was arrested in relation to the incident. The suspect's death was ruled a suicide.
However, Aden said that there is still hope that at least he would get justice for his son.
Two other suspects, Juliet Njoki and Mohamud Hussein Aden, are currently facing trial over the attempt on Mukhtar’s life. In 2018, the two denied attempting to kill him.
