The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) employee who collapsed and died along a Nairobi street on Monday evening was actually shot by an unknown gunman, investigations reveal.

A postmortem established that Mary Nderi Gathenya, 46, had a single bullet lodged in her lungs with the pathologist saying the bullet entered through her collarbone.

Colleagues said the deceased, who was attached to the Operations Department’s Registration and Compliance, had an altercation with a client while at work but could not tell whether that is what led to her death

“This was my favourite staff. We wonder if it is an annoyed client. We wonder if it is the other colleague’s separated husband or just a bad accident,” a colleague who sought anonymity due to the tragic nature of the incident told People Daily.

The deceased was with her colleague identified as Damaris Achieng who reported that they walked from their Upper Hill offices to the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) after work.

Upon reaching Kaunda Street, her colleague felt a sharp pain on the chest and requested her to call an ambulance.

“She collapsed while holding her chest and blood was oozing from her mouth. The ambulance arrived and she was rushed to Nairobi Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival,” the colleague said.

No physical injury

Mystery into the death deepened after some colleagues claimed that apart from bleeding from the mouth, the body had no any physical injury or gunshot wounds when she was rushed to the hospital.

“Some of the colleagues examined the body and there was no any sign of a gunshot wound. We do not understand but we suspect they did not properly examine the body,” some colleagues said.

The colleague who was with her and who has since recorded her statement, said they were walking side by side but she did not hear any gunshots.

Officers visited the scene and later the hospital and categorised it as sudden death. Other witnesses said they had heard a gunshot at that time but police said there were blood stains at the scene.

On Tuesday, the body was transferred to Kenyatta University Mortuary where the autopsy was conducted by a pathologist only identified as Dr Kamonde in the police report, and who declared the cause of death as gunshot wound.

“The pathologist declared that the cause of death was gunshot wound after a bullet was found lodged in the lungs of the deceased

“It was established that the bullet entered through the collarbone having been fired from an elevated angle,” police said.

Ballistic experts report

Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei said the bullet head was handed to ballistic experts for analysis.

“Detectives have collected the bullet head for ballistic analysis. We do not know how and why the bullet was fired and by who. We have a team working on the case,” he said.

Police are investigating over 50 cases of sudden deaths reported across the country in the last one week.

On Tuesday, in Mwiki, Nairobi county, Jacinta Akinyi Awuor was found dead at the Shiranga-Mwiki bridge with no physical injuries.

Her husband, Samwel Kirothi Waweru said that he gave her Sh400 the previous evening to go and purchase food at the Mwiki Shopping Centre but she never came back. The body is lying at the Mama Lucy Hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem.

In another case in Mutuini, Dagoretti South sub county on Tuesday, the decomposing body of a middle aged man was found inside a borehole under construction.

The construction of the borehole, currently 57 feet, had stalled for about one month.

Residents of Dagoretti’s Kabiria have been left in shock after a cleaner who was cleaning a borehole found a decomposing body of a man inside.

Police who visited the scene said the deceased did not have any identification on him and it was not clear how long he had been inside the borehole.

“It is not clear if he was killed or he fell there accidentally inside the 57 feet deep borehole on Tuesday, February 14 afternoon,” police said in a statement.

Another child aged three months was also found dead in unclear circumstances at a Day Care in Nairobi’s Buruburu Estate.

The child’s father said the caregivers woke the child to have her meal but she did not respond. She was rushed to Bahati Health Centre where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police are also investigating the sudden death of a University of Nairobi Law student who was found dead inside her room on Sunday.

Teresia Wawira Ndwiga, a fourth year student was found lying on the floor naked with blood oozing from the nose.