Kenya: Who’s Wanjiru’s Real Father?

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Wanjohi Gakio, Irene Wairimu and Maxwell Masava

28 May 2011

An Ol Kalou lumberjack emerged yesterday claiming he is Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru’s father on the same day a postmortem examination failed to conclusively find the athlete’s cause of death.

The report indicated the athlete’s head and face injuries could have been caused by blunt force trauma – consistent with being hit on the head with a blunt object. The injuries are also consistent with a fall.

The examination conducted by chief government pathologist Moses Njue, in the presence of Dr Emily Rogena who stood in for Wanjiru’s mother Hannah Wanjiru, Sophie Mukhwana who stood in for Judy Wambui, who is claiming Wanjiru was the father of her unborn child, and another doctor representing Wanjiru’s widow Triza Njeri. “The post mortem was inconclusive. The injuries are consistent with blunt force trauma or a fall. The police will be going back to the Nyahururu home to establish whether the fall could have led to the death,” said Gordon Ogolla who is representing Wanjiru’s mother in a case in which she has filed to stop her estranged daughter-in-law from burying her son.

Fifty-six-year-old Lucas Kamotho Kameri is the third man to claim the athlete who plunged to his death from the balcony of his house in Muthaiga, Nyahururu 12 days ago.

The power saw lumberjack said he first met with Wanjiru’s mother at Matura in Ol Kalou. He claimed he supported Wanjiru and his mother when she went back to live in her parents home in Nyahururu and also facilitated his travel to Japan where he went for training before launching his career in athletics.

Kameri is the third man to claim Wanjiru as his son. Others are former Kenya Airforce draftsman turned clerk at the Baringo County council Elijah Kipng’etich Chebon and subsistence farmer Peter Kimani Kirihinya, 65, Kiambaa village in Githunguri, Kiambu county.

Chebon said he met Wanjiru’s mother in Nanyuki in 1985 when he was based at the Gilgil Barracks and lost contact when he was transferred and she left Gilgil to go back to her parents’ home in Nyahururu.

Kimani has claimed he had three sons with Wanjiru’s mother, Anne Wanjiru. One of them died young and was buried at the Kiambaa home while Wanjiru and his elder brother went with their mother to Nyahururu when she left Kimani.

Speaking in Ol Kalou town, Kameri produced photos taken of him, a teenage Wanjiru and his mother as proof of his claim. He said he first met with Wanjiru’s mother at a church function in 1985 and they fell in love.

Kameri said they separated after a few months as Wanjiru’s mother felt he could not afford to look after her and their baby because he was unemployed. He said Wanjiru’s mother opted to go back to her parents home where she could get the support she needed.

Kameri said he used to send whatever little money he earned to Wanjiru’s mother and continued to do so until Wanjiru was in his teens.

“I had been providing for the family with the meagre earnings that I sued to earn from the timber business until the baby went to primary school. He knew me as his father and their only breadwinner,” said Kameri who went ahead to marry another woman with whom they have five children.

Kameri said the relationship between him and Wanjiru’s mother had been warm and cordial until her son started earning big money from his athletic exploits. “That is when she started becoming proud and arrogant. She told him all sorts of evil against me, but my son still loved me. He even bought me a power saw when he returned from Japan,” Kameri said adding that Wanjiru had last December promised to buy him a lorry for his timber business.

He now wants a DNA test to be done to prove he is Wanjiru’s biological father and should be in charge of all the property that the athlete had accumulated.

Wanjiru’s mother confirmed she knew Kameri, but declined to comment on his paternity claims. Kameri said he not only knew Wanjiru was his son, but had gone to the home of his wife -Triza Njeri- to inform them that their daughter was living with Wanjiru and that they would return to formalize the dowry plans.

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