Police who rushed to the scene where Jeff Mwathi allegedly fell from the 10th floor of a Nairobi apartment found his brain matter scattered on the ground.
Investigating officer Charles Mutua on Tuesday told an inquest into the 2023 tragedy that detectives from the Homicide Unit found the victim with severe head injuries and that his head had burst open.
Jeff, an interior designer, died on the night of February 22, 2023, after visiting the home of popular musician Lawrence Njuguna, widely known as DJ Fatxo.
Mutua was testifying before Milimani Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi in Nairobi.
A postmortem examination conducted by pathologist Dr Peter Ndegwa established that Mwathi suffered multiple organ injuries caused by blunt-force trauma, consistent with a fall.
Mutua said Jeff's trousers were found pulled down below his knees, supporting earlier testimonies presented to the court.
Defence lawyers launched aggressive cross-examination of key investigators during the inquest hearing, exposing gaps in the initial probe and crime scene handling.
Chief Inspector Timothy Bett testified that CCTV footage showed Jeff's body falling 59 minutes after DJ Fatxo left the apartment, with only two men — the driver and the cousin — remaining inside the house with the victim.
The defence questioned why the two men left inside were not immediately treated as primary suspects.
Investigators admitted forensic teams only visited the apartment three weeks after the incident, by which time the scene had been cleaned and returned to occupants, raising serious contamination concerns.
Chief Inspector Francis Kieti, a Crime Scene Investigations officer, said he visited the apartment about three weeks after Jeff's death.
By the time he arrived, the premises had already been cleaned, and the physical conditions he encountered could not fully represent the scene as it was on the night of the incident.
Under cross-examination, Kieti made several admissions, saying his reconstruction could not establish whether Jeff was pushed, jumped, or was otherwise manipulated before going through the window.
Additionally, the window had not been dusted for forensic evidence, limiting what could be recovered from the exit point.
He was the second scene-of-crime officer to examine the location.
The inquest continues with more witnesses scheduled to testify.
The tragic incident stems from a feud over what happened inside the apartment that night.
Jeff had met the artist earlier to discuss an interior design contract before going out for drinks with him and several companions.
Public outrage erupted after initial police reports suggested suicide, prompting the victim's family to demand a full criminal probe.
As a result, authorities exhumed the body for a second postmortem examination amidst allegations of foul play.
Mutua said seven people entered the flat that night, with CCTV footage showing DJ Fatxo leaving with three women. At that point, only two men remained in the house with Jeff.
Although cameras filmed the two men walking downstairs and returning, investigators found no record of them leaving afterwards, leaving their exact movements a mystery.
During previous proceedings, the victim's father, Peter Ngugi, rejected any suggestion of self-harm.
He insisted that Jeff was killed and that “narratives of him having been consumed by suicidal thoughts to the extent of taking away his life are misleading”.
Popular musician Samidoh, who is the deceased's uncle, also testified against the suicide theory, asserting the bedroom window grills were too narrow for Jeff to have forced his way through voluntarily.
The family asked the magistrate for speedier hearings, citing profound trauma and prolonged suffering.
The court acknowledged the immense public concern and assured the family of a swift resolution, ruling that adequate facilities would be made available for a swift disposal of the matter.
While the defence lawyer did not address the court yesterday, lawyer Duncan Okatch, representing DJ Fatxo, argued that his client had no hand in the fatality.
Okatch said his client was “not even in his house at the material time when his friend met his death".
