Lee Funeral Home wants out of body parts theft suit

The Lee Funeral Home wants a court to expunge it from a case pitting the family of late Nairobi Provincial Police Chief Timothy Mwandi Muumbo against former Chief Government Pathologist Moses Njue over theft of body parts.

Through lawyer Herman Omiti, the funeral home indicates that no allegations have been made against it by the family of the deceased, whose heart was allegedly extracted and went missing at the morgue during an autopsy in June 2015.

When the case was called Wednesday for hearing before Justice James Makau, Mr Omiti told the court that after perusing the petition he realised his client’s participation was not required.

In seeking court’s permission to leave the dispute, the lawyer however said some of the orders sought by the family will be directed to his client if granted.

“They should leave with the court permission so that no order will be made against them,” said Mr Omiti adding that in the alternative the entire petition should be struck out.

The family through lawyer Mary Muigai said Lee was dragged in the case because the deceased’s heart went missing when the body was in its custody.

Ms Muigai added that the funeral home had earlier sought to leave the case and justice John Mativo ruled that it was upon them [Lee] to participate or not.

In the court papers, the family led by Mr Jostone Kassim Muumbo wants the court to compel the pathologist and the morgue to release the lost body part.

Ms Carolyn Muumbo -daughter of the deceased- claimed that there was collusion to conceal the truth about her father’s cause of death when testified.

He was aged 83 years.

The family was told that he had died of a heart attack. It asked Dr Njue to carry out the post-mortem exam and submit the results in two weeks.

He failed to meet the deadline prompting them to serve him with a demand letter. The family said they later learnt that the report Dr Njue submitted was similar to another filed by the police.

They opted for a second post-mortem exam, this time by Prof Emily Rogena. She, however did not conduct it after it was discovered that vital organs, including the heart, were missing.

This prompted the family to seek court’s redress. A statement filed in court said Dr Njue told the family that the kidney and parts of the stomach were taken to the police and that he could not account for the heart.

Dr Njue and his son, Lemuel Anasha Mureithi, were later charged at a magistrate court for stealing Mr Muumbo’s heart and were released on a cash bail of Sh300,000 each.

The hearing Wednesday was adjourned to June 23.