Human rights activist Caroline Mwatha bled to death from a ruptured uterus, an autopsy shows. The postmortem conducted yesterday by family pathologist Peter Ndegwa showed Caroline’s male foetus was mutilated by surgical interference. The autopsy was conducted at Umash Funeral Home in Nairobi.
“Somebody mutilated the foetus, it has no one left upper limb, it has no brain because it has been sucked out and the bones of the skull are fractured,” Ndegwa said.
Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor supervised the examination.
Ndegwa’s description of the injuries indicate Caroline died a painful death. The anatomical analysis, Ndegwa said, showed the foetus had come out of the uterus to the abdominal cavity where a lot of blood was found. Ndegwa said the uterus had been perforated at the back leaving “a very big gaping hole”.
“Therefore, what we are seeing is that somebody somewhere somehow attempted to either dismember the foetus or remove some parts.”
The pathologist said, other than the body turning pale to symbolise excessive loss of blood, there were no signs of defensive injuries on Caroline’s body.
“We also found that there were needle puncher marks on the cubital fossa meaning there was some medical intervention,” Ndegwa said.
The cubital fossa is the medical term for the area inside the elbow joint. He said samples have been taken from the body for toxicological analysis to establish the type of medicine Caroline was injected with.
The postmortem was witnessed by Haki Africa on behalf of the human rights fraternity.