Detectives are investigating an incident where a 14-year-old girl was found dead after suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Oldonyosabuk, Matungulu, Machakos County.
The police want to know the
circumstances leading to the death.
The body of the girl was found in a
closed room where she was alone on Sunday morning, police said.
Besides her bed, according to police,
there were burnt beans that had boiled in a jiko overnight.
The body did not have any visible
injuries when it was taken to the mortuary, the police added.
Police said the house was poorly
ventilated and concluded she died of poisoning by the carbon monoxide.
However, a team was sent to the scene
to talk to her relatives as part of the probe into the tragedy.
The body was moved to Machakos
General Referral Hospital pending autopsy and other investigations.
Officials advise against using jikos
in poorly ventilated rooms.
Carbon monoxide poisoning, always referred to
as ‘the silent killer’ happens when the toxic odourless gases emitted from
burning wood or charcoal mix with blood and affect oxygen circulation in the
body.
“When you breathe in carbon monoxide, it enters
the blood, mixes with the red blood cells haemoglobin to form poisonous
carboxyhaemoglobin that prevents blood from transporting oxygen,” reads a
report from WHO.
The signs of carbon monoxide poisoning include
headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, stomach upset,
vomiting, chest pain, blocked nose, running nose, red eyes and confusion.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is more likely to
occur when people are asleep.
Meanwhile,
the body of a 16-year-old boy was found hanging on a truss of a roof in his
room in Agulo Kituo village, Mbita, Homabay.
Police
said the body had a rope tied around his neck.
The
boy was a grade nine pupil at a local school.
The
motive for the incident is not yet known. The body was moved to a local
mortuary waiting for autopsy.
In
Kwambira, Muranga County, a man died by suicide in his mother’s kitchen.
Police
found the body of Eliud Ndembu, 44 hanging on the roof rafters with a manila
rope tied around his neck inside the kitchen of his mother.
The
body had no physical injuries and no suicide note was found at the scene. The motive of the incident is yet to be known,
police said.
The
body was moved to the mortuary for postmortem.
