The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revealed the details surrounding the death of a Kenya High Commission diplomat in the UK.
Addressing the Departmental Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations on Thursday, Secretary for Foreign Office Ambassador Raphael Maikara revealed that the diplomat, David Karira Gatuthu, died by suicide.
Maikara was representing Prime CS and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi and was responding to a question raised by Kinangop MP Hon. Kwenya Thuku regarding the controversial death of the officer.
According to Maikara, Gatuthu was admitted to a hospital in London a few days prior to his demise. The doctors ascertained that the Foreign Service Officer was suffering from depression.
“On Thursday, February 16 at 1925 hrs, London Metropolitan Police were informed that Mr. David Gatuthu had escaped from Barnet Hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for acute depressive episode having been taken there on Tuesday, February 14, 2023,” a statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry read in parts.
London Metropolitan Police then launched a search for the officer after learning of his escape.
The next day, on February 18, the police reported that a man, later identified as Gatuthu, had jumped off the fourth floor of a building in Central London and died on the spot.
Once the news of Gatuthu’s demise reached the Foreign Affairs ministry, Maikara says a team was assembled and dispatched to the UK to probe the circumstances around the officer’s death.
“The team undertook its mission from Thursday, 23rd February 2023, to Sunday, 26th February 2023.
“The team engaged with officials both from the High Commission and the UK Government and recommended that for the matter to be decisively concluded, there was need for an inquest by the UK Government,” the ambassador elaborated.
An inquest is an inquiry to ascertain the facts relating to an incident, especially something undesirable.
UK authorities are still holding the deceased’s body pending the conclusion of the inquiry by UK authorities into the incident.
Mudavadi’s statement contradicts reports released in early February this year, claiming that the counsellor had passed following an illness.
“My sincere condolences to the family of one of our Foreign and Diaspora Affairs staff David Gatuthu, who passed away while on posting after a short illness,” then Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua stated at the time.
Source-https://www.kenyans.co.ke/
Kenyan Govt Reveal Details of Diplomat David Gatuthu’s Death In UK
