Editor's Review

  • In his submission before Milimani principal magistrate Zainab Abdul, Dr Barack Mubarak who attended to Tecra at King Fahad Hospital in Lamu said the impact from the fall was heavy, suggesting that there could have been a force behind it.

One of the doctors who assessed the late Keroche heiress Tecra Muigai, on Tuesday told an inquest into her death that injuries sustained on her body indicated that she succumbed to more than a normal staircase fall.

In his submission before Milimani principal magistrate Zainab Abdul, Dr Barack Mubarak who attended to Tecra at King Fahad Hospital in Lamu said the impact from the fall was heavy, suggesting that there could have been a force behind it.

“There was a cut in her head, which is not a normal fall. Such an injury is likely caused by an object with an external force.

“From initial assessment, it did not appear like it was a normal fall on the stairs. If it was, there would be bruises, but there were no observations of bruises,” Mubarak told the court.


File image of the late Tecra Muigai. [Photo: Courtesy]

While engaging Dr Mubarak, Senior Counsel James Orengo; representing the Muigai family sought to know whether a temporal bone is hard to damage, as it was one of the affected parts in Tecra’s body.

In his response, Dr Mubarak appeared to suggest that internally located bones are very tough hard to damage in the case of a mere staircase fall.

 “The temporal bone is found at the base of the skull. It helps with hearing and the balancing of the body. The brain is in between the two temporal bones,” he said.

The late Tecra Muigai died on May 2, 2020, after allegedly falling off a staircase at a Lamu hotel. Following her demise, the family sought for an inquest to establish the exact cause of death.

The late Tecra’s boyfriend Omar Lali; a key witness in the inquest is expected to testify later today.