Nairobi Hospital Director Job Obwaka died of Cardiac Arrest, postmortem confirms

At first light, the family of Dr Job Obwaka, Nairobi Hospital’s director, arrived at Lee Funeral Home to witness the postmortem examination of a man whose sudden death has shaken the medical world.

Three pathologists—Johansen Oduor for the government, Peter Ndegwa for the suspect, and Joseph Ndungu for the family—all agreed on the cause of death.

"And there we have done a very exhaustive postmortem. We have done the possible postmortem together with the government pathologist and we concur with the findings. The cause of death in this case, he had a cardiac problem. He developed a cardiac event, eventually developing a cardiac arrest as a result of a heart problem that he had," said family pathologist Joseph Ndung’u.

The family says it is satisfied.

"The government pathologist did his part and we are quite confident about the preliminary report even as we await the other confirmatory findings when the toxicology results finally come out in a couple of weeks. But as for the family, we're going to continue to eulogise my brother and continue with the other arrangements that are there for us to be able to give him a decent send-off," said the deceased’s brother, William Obwaka.

But defence counsel turned fire on investigators.

"This document has been dedicated here. The sensationalism about it was unnecessary. She has suffered a lot of public humiliation. The DCI decided to sensationalise the matter for no reason. From our perspective as the defence, the toxicology is a formality. We expect the DCI to do an honourable thing of terminating the investigation against our client and releasing her to go home," Levy Munyeri, the suspect’s lawyer, said.

Samples from vital organs are now with government chemists.

Beatrice Wangari told police she cooked a meal for Obwaka. He ate, retired to the master bedroom, and collapsed.

A house search recovered two plates, a spoon, a water glass, assorted drugs, a blanket, bedcover, wet shawl, and a half-consumed wine bottle—all exhibits for toxicology.

"Now we have come up with the cause of death and we have agreed on the same, so we await other tests—toxicology and histology," said Peter Ndegwa, the pathologist for the suspect.

On May 1st, Obwaka met Beatrice at Olive Court in Kitengela. Hours later, he was rushed to Nairobi Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The burial is set for Friday, May 15th, in Musanda village, Mumias, Kakamega County.