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The body of the elderly New Zealand businessman murdered in Kenya is heading home.
Julian Nathan's family and business partners met in Auckland on Tuesday to make arrangements to bring the body of the 76-year-old back to New Zealand for a funeral, probably next week.
Mr Nathan was beaten to death by intruders who broke into a secure apartment in Nairobi last weekend.
They demanded money and during the incident Mr Nathan was bashed. A post-mortem examination found he died from a single blow to the head, Radio New Zealand reported yesterday.
John Ellegard, a business associate of Mr Nathan and the marketing manager for the New Zealand avocado oil company Olivado, said they still lacked details of how the robbers got into the gated apartment complex.
He said the blow to Mr Nathan's head might have been fatal, considering his age.
"I don't think anybody really knows yet."
However, he said it was possible the guards on the gate might have been involved in letting the robbers in before they climbed the outside of the apartment to the first floor where they attacked Mr Nathan and two others from Olivado - engineers Phil Civil and Ray Kensington.
"We think they had some inside help.
"The whole of the compound is surrounded by a 10ft-high [3m] wall and that is topped by an electric fence with barbed wire," Mr Ellegardsaid.
He said the body of Mr Nathan, who was in Nairobi to help to set up an avocado oil processing plant, was expected to be returned to New Zealand in the next few days for a funeral in Auckland next week.
- NZPA
