Members of the public in Likoni, Mombasa County view the body of a six-year-old boy who was found dead in the Bishop's car in this photo taken on February 26, 2018.
Can one truly peer through tinted windows and clearly see what lies inside a vehicle, or does such a claim raise more questions than answers?
This question now sits at the heart of an inquest where a pastor told the police he peered through a tinted car window and spotted the body of a six year old boy lying at the back seat of the car.
Curiously, the same pastor was reportedly unable to see through those very windows a day earlier, when the child, Emmanuel Wasike, had been reported missing and a search conducted within the Ushindi Baptist Church compound in Likoni, Mombasa County.
The court is grappling to understand how a pastor was able to clearly see a child's body inside the same tinted vehicle he could not see through the previous day during his search.
“One of the pastors in the church told me he could see the child in the vehicle. That was on the second day,” Corporal Levin Nyamai told the inquest.
However, the officer could not explain how the pastor was able to clearly see inside the vehicle through its tinted windows on the second day, observing the lifeless body of a child lying on the back seat of motor vehicle registration number KBH 379N, yet failed to do so the previous day during the search.
The case dates back to 2018, when young Wasike went missing after attending a church service at the Ushindi Baptist Church in Likoni.
A day later, his lifeless body was discovered inside a car parked within the church compound.
Now, as the inquest revisits the circumstances surrounding his death, the pastor’s account, as relayed by the investigating officer, raises troubling questions.
Was it genuinely possible to see through the tinted windows, or do critical gaps remain in the narrative?
According to evidence presented, on February 25, 2018, at about 8.30 am, Wasike left his parents’ home in the company of his 17 year old brother Michael Wasike to attend a church service at Ushindi Baptist Church in Likoni.
On that day, the church hosted children’s presentation sessions, which concluded at around noon. Thereafter, the children were left playing within the church compound.
Ushindi Baptist Church in Likoni where the body of a 6-year-old boy who went missing was found in the back seat of the church bishop’s car.
At approximately 3.00 pm, the child’s parents who were also congregants at the church returned to their home in the Migombani area of Likoni Sub County, only to realise that their son had not returned home.
Efforts to trace him proved futile, prompting the parents to file a missing person report at Likoni Police Station under OB No. 66/25/2/2018.
The following day, February 26, at about 9.00 am, the child was found dead inside a motor vehicle, a Toyota Allion registration number KBH 379N, parked within the church compound. Police records at the time indicated that the vehicle belonged to Bishop Joseph Maisha and had been parked there by Ernest Mwakani , a driver attached to the church.
The matter was reported by the church administration at Likoni Police Station under OB No. 44 of February 26, 2018.
Police officers visited the scene, documented the evidence through photographs and moved the body to the Coast Provincial General Hospital mortuary for preservation.
Organ failure
A post mortem examination conducted on March 7 concluded that the cause of death was consistent with multiple organ failure due to asphyxia, with features indicative of hyperthermia.
The post mortem report was later produced in court as part of the evidence following a recommendation by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to conduct an inquest into the child’s death.
The prosecution closed its case last week after presenting the testimony of Corporal Nyamai, the investigating officer alongside other witnesses including the deceased's parents.
Further testimony by the investigating officer failed to clarify the circumstances under which the child’s body was discovered inside the vehicle, leaving critical questions unanswered.
Nyamai told the court that upon receiving the report, he proceeded to the scene alongside other officers, where they found the body lying on the back seat of the saloon car, with its windows rolled up and doors closed within the church compound.
“The vehicle had tinted windows. We received the information from the church management through Pastor Lime. We opened the car and found the child lifeless at the back seat. There were no visible external injuries on the body. We took photographs and the body was taken to the mortuary,” he testified, clarifying that the photographs were taken using a mobile phone before being forwarded to Crime Scene Investigations for certification.
He further told the inquest that the post mortem examination attributed the death to suffocation, with no visible external injuries observed on the body.
In the course of investigations, Nyamai revealed that the church’s CCTV surveillance system was not functioning on the day of the incident or in the days preceding it, a fact he confirmed with church officials.
Ushindi Baptist Church in Likoni where a six-year-old boy's body was found dead in the Bishop's car dead, in this photo taken on February 26, 2018.
He also noted that the vehicle in question reportedly had a defective locking system and had not been in regular use.
According to his observations, although the car had defective locking system, therefore gaining access to it was not straightforward, as officers experienced difficulty opening the doors.
This raised further questions about how the child may have ended up inside the vehicle, an issue the officer could not explain in his findings.
Nyamai also stated that the vehicle belonged to the church and had remained parked within the compound for some time due to its faulty locking mechanism.
However, he did not produce any documents from the National Transport and Safety Authority to confirm ownership, nor did he indicate that he had made inquiries to verify that the vehicle indeed belonged to the church.
This contradicted earlier police reports indicating that the vehicle belonged to Bishop Maisha.
Further, Corporal Nyamai did not subject the vehicle to a mechanical inspection to confirm claims of defective locking system , relying instead on information provided by church management that its locking system was defective and that it had not been in use for some time.
Key inconsistency
The officer also acknowledged a key inconsistency that now lies at the centre of the inquest, particularly how the child’s body was discovered, the non functional CCTV system, and other pertinent issues that remain unresolved.
Despite a search being conducted earlier when the child was reported missing, Nyamai said no one had spotted the boy inside the vehicle at the time. Yet the following day, a pastor claimed to have seen the child through the tinted windows.
“The report had already been made and no one could see the child. What changed for the pastor to see the child the next day?” the prosecution posed.
However, the officer merely stated that the pastor told him he could see the child in the vehicle.
The officer also stated that even after his investigations, he did not find anyone culpable.
He maintained that, in his view, the incident appeared accidental, attributing the death to possible suffocation exacerbated by high temperatures in Mombasa and the enclosed nature of the vehicle with tinted windows.
However, the critical question of how the child ended up inside the car, despite its defective locking system that required considerable force to open, remained unanswered.
“In my opinion, it was quite an unfortunate event,” he said.
Nyamai also confirmed that the pastor who claimed to see through the tinted windows recorded a statement.
However, a statement by the church driver presented a different account, suggesting that the vehicle was in use.
In his statement attached to the court record, Ernest Mwakani said that on February 26, while at the church, he was instructed by the church administration to check on the vehicle, as it was to be used. This was at around 8.30 am.
He stated that when he went to check the vehicle about an hour later, at around 9.30 am, he opened the driver’s door and detected a smell. Upon looking around, he saw a child lying lifeless on the back seat.
He informed the duty pastor, Aggrey Lime, who proceeded to the vehicle and confirmed the same. The matter was then reported to the police.
In his statement to the police, Pastor Lime gave a different version of events regarding how he received the news.
He stated that on February 26 at around 9.48 am, he received a call from the church secretary informing him that a dead body of a male child had been found inside the bishop’s vehicle. He was at his residence at the time.
“I arrived at the church and found people gathered around the vehicle. I confirmed the body of a male juvenile lying on the back seat of the vehicle,” he said.
He added that the matter was reported to the police and the body was photographed before being moved to the mortuary.
According to Lime, he received the information from the church secretary, yet according to the driver, he immediately informed the duty pastor after discovering the body.
Pastor Lime confirmed he was in the church the previous day and conducted services till 15:30pm when he left for his home thereafter.
Even as the inquest closed, the sequence of events, particularly how the child entered the vehicle without a key, the reported defective doors that even police struggled to open, and the claim that a pastor could see through tinted windows, has cast doubt on what truly happened.
The court will deliver its ruling on May 28.
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