Kenya's former Cooperatives and Social Services Minister in the Mzee Jomo Kenyatta government Ronald Ngala died at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) on December 25, 1972.
The former KADU leader succumbed to injuries he sustained from a grisly car accident he had been involved on Jamhuri Day of the same year.
Ngala's death set off a flury of whispers and rumours about the supposed mysteries of the accident, with some of his associates and supporters demanding a government inquest into his death.
Government officials held the inquest which had great political significance in Kenya since it reflected a growing uneasiness and suspicion within the political system.
Ever since the assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969, many Kenyans believed that there were certain people who would stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.
Deputy Public Prosecutor James Karugu, later opened the Ngala inquest on February 19, 1973.
Evidence from the inquest indicated that Ngala changed plans on December 12,1972, and decided to drive from Nairobi to his home at the Coast, despite being expected in Nairobi for Jamhuri Day fete on the same day.
Following the public national event, it was not clear why he decided to go to the coast. The inquest was however told that he might have been annoyed by his 22-year-old second wife, who had failed to fly to Nairobi the day before as it was scheduled.
Investigations revealed that Ngala's driver lost control of the car about 35 miles out of Nairobi that morning. The driver testified that he had "swerved because bees flew into the car."
"The car left the road and overturned three times. One man who realised that the victim was Ngala, drove him to the nearest hospital in Machakos. There an Israeli Doctor decided that Ngala had a head injury and ordered him taken to Nairobi where better care was available," Zumari reports.
While in Nairobi, Ngala who had diabetes, lapsed into a diabetic coma but came out of it while under treatment. 17 doctors including a Canadian brain specialist, Dr. William Frindel who was flown in by the government were in charge of his treatment for the next 14 days.
Ngala had a concussion that was causing bleeding from his brain. Though he had several periods of apparent recovery, doctors could not stop bleeding from the brain, which would send him back into coma. The bleeding from the brain gradually damaged his heart, kidneys and liver causing his death on Christmas Day.
"Everything under the sun was done to save the minister’s life, and no stone was left un-turned," Head of KNH team Dr Eric Njumwa Mngola told the inquest team.
Karugu arose in court to protest the coverage of Ngala's accident in the East African Standard, on the second day of the inquest.The Pathologist in charge of the autopsy had testified that an injury on Ngala’s chest wall might have been caused by a blunt instrument, but the newspaper had misquoted him to say a “blunt weapon.”
“The word weapon,” Karugu said, “can give very wrong ideas.” Magistrate Sachdeva agreed and scolded the press.
The inquest spent most of its time discussing an error made by the Ministry of Information in its first announcement of the accident, for three days.
In the first broadcasts of the Voice of Kenya and the first dispatches of the Kenya News Agency, Ngala was described as travelling from the coast to Nairobi when the accident took place, instead of the other way round.
The error was not corrected by the two agencies until Ngala died. To confuse matters more, the ministry, in its correction put the blame on the wrong officer.
But according to the evidence, the error was caused by typical sloppy journalism in the Ministry of Information. Born in 1922 at Gotani, Kilifi county, Ronald Gideon Ngala was the leader of the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) party from its creation in 1960 until its dissolution in 1964.
He attended the Alliance High School in Kenya's Kiambu county and Makerere University College in Uganda.