Details have emerged that the 2008 Olympic Marathon champion Samwel Wanjiru was killed by blunt force to his head and not by falling from balcony, Chief Pathologist Johansen Oduor on Tuesday told the court. Samuel Wanjiru died mysteriously in May 2011.
It was alleged that he died after falling off a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute but the cause of his death remained uncertain.
Sammy Wanjiru, who set a blistering pace to shatter the 24-year-old Olympic record in the marathon, becoming the youngest winner of the event, died aged 24. He was Kenya’s first marathon champion.
News reports following his death quoted the police saying that Samuel Wanjiru had jumped from the balcony of his home after his wife, Triza Njeri, arrived to find him with another woman.
Samuel Wanjiru had been going through a troubled period in his life. In December 2010, he was charged with threatening to kill his wife and with illegal possession of an AK-47 assault rifle. His wife withdrew the attempted-murder charge against him, saying they had reconciled. He was scheduled to appear in court a few days before he died on the firearms charge.