• Postmortem on Friday on body of beloved Nakuru doctor was inconclusive. Those of his two children also inconclusive. More toxicology tests ordered.
• The Nakuru obstetrician is believed to have injected his two children with fatal doses of drugs, then attempted suicide himself. Died days later.
Image: THE STAR
A postmortem on Friday was unable to establish the cause of death of a beloved Nakuru doctor believed to have injected himself with poison after injecting his two children.
More toxicology tests will be required on the tissue samples from Dr James Gakara and his two children.
Gakara is suspected to have fatally injected his children, aged three and five, with assorted drugs, possibly including insulin, on Saturday last week at their home.
Speaking after the postmortem exam, regional pathologist Titus Ngulungu said the cause of death could not be established and more testing will be required.
The autopsy was performed at Rift Valley General Hospital morgue.
On Monday, the pathologist said autopsies on the children were also inconclusive.
Ngulungu confirmed there were injection marks on the children's bodies and said they may have been poisoned as police suspect. He said tissue samples were sent to the Government chemist for detailed toxicology analysis.
"Given that the doctor was under treatment, his body also had pricks but we could not establish if they were made by doctors or himself" the pathologist said.
The family can bury the three because enough samples have been collected, he said.
The children were found dead lying in their beds. Their father was found dead in his bedroom.
Vials of assorted drugs were recovered from the children's bedside table and from the doctor's.
A neighbour heard unusual noise and raised the alarm. The children were already dead and the unconscious doctor was taken to Rift Valley General Hospital where he died on Wednesday..
Family spokesman Burton Njoroge said a requiem mass for the three will take place at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Milimani, Nakuru.
The three will be buried at their family home in Mbaruk, Gilgil subcounty, on Tuesday, he said.
Njoroge expressed hope the toxicology results would be released as soon as possible to help the family achieve some closure.
The murders and suicide occurred at the family's house at the Milimani Apartments.
The widow has been admitted twice to hospital twice since the deaths. She is living in a different house within the complex because the family house has been secured as a crime scene.
Gakara was a famous and beloved obstetrician gynecologist who owned Optimum Current Hospital in Nakuru Town East.
(Edited by V. Graham)