Ambulances and police officers failed to rescue the former Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru from the wreckage of his car following a crash at Kabati in Murang’a along the Nyeri-Nairobi highway on November 7, 2017, witnesses have told a court.
At the start of a public inquest into Dr Gakuru’s death on Wednesday, three witnesses led by the former governor’s private personal assistant Josphat Mwangi Maina and two body guards, Corporal Peter Mwaniki Maigua and Corporal Samson Lekol, said the governor stayed at the scene of crash for more than 40 minutes bleeding profusely.
The inquest is looking into the circumstances that caused the governor’s death.
Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Maisi Chesang heard that two ambulances and a helicopter sent to rescue the governor turned up later at the Thika Level Five Hospital.
Also, Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria and Kiambu’s Ferdinand Waititu went to the hospital to check on Dr Gakuru’s state.
In the crash that happened at Makenji, a few kilometres to Thika Town, Dr Gakuru’s driver, Samson Kinyanjui, lost control of the vehicle – a Mercedes Mercedes E250 – and rammed into a guard rail which tore trough the car, entering through the front and exiting at the rear.
“When we were struggling to rescue him, his blood was flowing through the guard rail onto the road,” said Mr Lekol while being cross examined by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Mairanyi.
The witness, who was in the governor’s chase car, said it was misty throughout the journey from Nyeri town and the road was slippery and that it was sloppy at the area where the crash happened.
The vehicles were driving at a speed of about 130 kilometres per hour since the governor, who was only three months in office, was in hurry to attend an interview at a local TV station.