Pathologist denies stealing heart of corpse
News & Trends •
source63 kenyas former chief government pathologist dr. moses njue on accused of stealing the heart of a corpse at lee funeral home three years ago has denied the allegation1 they are accused of stealing the heart of timothy mwandi muumbo while performing an autopsy on june 25 20151 mureithi was not in court and chief magistrate francis andayi issued summons for him to appear in court and answer to the charges before the hearing date on july 31 dr njue denied a further count of destroying the heart to conceal evidence knowing that the autopsy report would be used as evidence in a case pending in court1 he denied a third count of illegally removing the heart1 the court had earlier rejected an application by dr njue to defer the plea arguing mr muumbos relatives had filed a petition before the high court seeking to compel him to release the body part. according to dr njue the trial will prejudice the high court case1 dr njue was charged at a nairobi court alongside his son lemuel anasha mureithi who was his assistant pathologist1 mr andayi agreed with ms mwaniki saying that there was nothing stopping the court from proceeding with the case1 after denying the charges the court ordered dr njue to deposit cash bail of sh300000 to secure his release1 another family in meru county complained that they buried their relative minus the heart after dr njue performed an autopsy to establish the cause of his death1 the dpp had recommended that dr njue who resigned from the government a few years ago to work at his own medical school be charged with theft of body parts belonging to benedict karau1 mr karau died mysteriously on march 2 2015 and dr njue was set to be charged with three counts including theft contrary to section 275 of the penal code wilful destruction of evidence and illegal removal of body parts contrary to the anatomy act1 but dr njue rushed to court and obtained orders obtained an anticipatory bail and filed a petition seeking to block the charges1 assistant director of public prosecutions catherine mwaniki objected the application saying dr njue was not the applicant in the petition and the trial court had not been served with orders stopping the proceedings1