A house help was found dead in her room after suspected jiko poisoning in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
Irene Wamalwa, 44, failed to wake up for her household chores on
Thursday, prompting her employers to go and check on her.
A burning jiko emits deadly carbon monoxide.
She stayed alone in a servants’ quarters room, which is within the
main house, police said.
She was a househelp to a CEO of a leading insurance company.
The employers told police they went and knocked on her door, but there
was no response as she had locked from inside.
This forced them to break in, where they found the body sprawled on
the bed. The woman was dead out of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.
Police who visited the scene said the room did not have
ventilation, as the woman had locked the windows.
There was a charcoal jiko beside her bed. It had burned overnight,
and it is suspected she used it to warm herself, or it was a suicide mission.
Police moved the body to the mortuary pending autopsy and other
investigations.
The team wants to establish if the woman died from carbon monoxide
poisoning.
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, runny nose, red eyes and confusion.
