Jacob Juma autopsy report raises more queries on his death

Jacob Juma had a blood-soaked gauze — a type of bandage used for dressing wounds or stopping bleeding — on his neck and right hand when his body was presented for autopsy.

According to one autopsy report seen by the Nation, the bandage was on his neck and right hand above the elbow, raising questions about the theory presented so far by police about the place and manner of his death.

Police think he was shot in his car by assailants who waylaid him on the road. Did someone stop to help him at the scene of the shooting or was he shot elsewhere?

After interviewing witnesses, visiting the site and reviewing the autopsy report, it seems there is a possibility that the controversial businessman was not killed in his car at all; that he may have been killed elsewhere, his body placed in his car and the vehicle pushed to the side of the road to create the perfect crime scene.

His bullet wounds were also inconsistent with claims that the murder victim was shot while sitting in the driver’s seat.

The post-mortem exam report shows that he was shot several times on his right hand at close range.

He also had a bullet wound on the left of his neck and on the right, at an angle in which the projectiles ruptured his lungs. The wounds show he was shot from a distance.

This is in addition to two shots to the centre of his chest.

Guards at a construction site less than a kilometre from where Juma is reported to have been shot told the Nation they did not hear anything to arouse suspicion.

“We heard three loud noises, not like gunshots, but sounding as if a car had jumped bumps,” said one of the guards.

Police have concluded that the businessman was shot with an AK47 assault rifle, a large calibre weapon which makes a racket when fired.

Juma’s car had more than seven bullet holes from what appears to be AK47 and the sound of such a weapon fired several times would have carried far and wide.

Police reports said an officer stationed at a nearby construction site was approached by two men who told him they had seen a stalled vehicle.

The guards at the two construction sites in the area told the Nation there was no police officer at their sites that night.

Also, though the vehicle was at a busy junction in a generally insecure stretch of the road where motorists are likely to be on alert, none reported seeing a stalled car until a police officer called Karen Police Station.

The guards near the crime scene said that section of the road was quite busy that night until after midnight.

If Juma was abducted and then shot, why would his attackers bandage his wounds? If they intended to kill him, why try to stop the bleeding? Did they have a change of mind?

The bandages and their significance appear to be some of the clues in the investigation that homicide detectives are unable to explain.

Nation inquiries also revealed findings that seemed to contradict early reports about the management of the scene of crime as well as the official account of the assassination.

There were earlier claims that the crime scene was contaminated.

However, witnesses have since said that the scene was secured and that crime scene specialists and detectives combed through Juma’s car for almost two hours before his body was removed and the car towed to Karen Police Station.

According to witnesses, the police are said to have taken photographs of the body, searched the car and his pockets.

The state of the crime scene and interviews with early responders raise questions about the assumption that the businessman was shot in his car on that roadside.

The autopsy report showed that his right hand was shot several times, with a high velocity gun at close range, puncturing a major artery.

A pathologist said in such cases the patient bleeds a great deal and dies of blood loss within minutes.

A tow truck attendant who was involved in the recovery of Juma’s Mercedes said there wasn’t much blood on the driver’s seat.

The towing company was informed by a Karen Police Station officer — identified as Murongi — that a car had stalled on the road.

“Police officers cordoned off the area and told us to stand some distance away from the car. They went on searching the car for over an hour as if looking for something important,” said the attendant.

He said the tow team arrived at the scene a few minutes past 10pm but were not allowed near the vehicle for over an hour.

“The engine was off when I went inside the car. There was very little blood on the driver’s seat while there was some blood on the passenger side. The blood appeared smeared,” recalled the attendant, only identified as Joshua.

He said he put the car in neutral, hoisted it and headed to Karen Police Station.

The body was carried in a police Land Cruiser. A Corporal Khaemba registered the body at City Mortuary at 0157 hours that morning.