•Matungulu sub-county police commander Peter Omondi said preliminary investigations showed that the animals could have been poisoned.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
A man has lost his nine cows in a suspected poisoning incident in Matungulu, Machakos County.
Henry Nzioka woke up to a rude shock to find nine out of his flock of 70 cattle lying dead at his home in Tala within Matungulu sub-county on Thursday.
Matungulu sub-county police commander Peter Omondi said the incident was reported to the Tala police station on Thursday morning.
"Today in the morning we got a report from one Nzioka who is a dairy farmer, he also keeps beef animals, that he woke up in the morning and found nine of his cows lying dead in the cattle shed. We came to the scene and established that nine cows had died at an unknown time of the night, " Omondi said.
Omondi said they (the police) incorporated a veterinary officer from the area who attended to the carcasses.
"This happened at an unknown time at the home of one Henry Nzioka who securely locked his animals yesterday in the evening only to wake up today at 8.00am and found 9 of his 70 herds of cattle dead. These were two bulls and 7 cows."
The police visited the scene together with a veterinary officer where a postmortem was conducted and samples taken to the veterinary laboratory for investigations, Omondi told the Star.
He said preliminary investigations showed that the animals could have been poisoned, according to the veterinary officer Denis Otodimu.
The police boss said the carcasses were later buried deep underground.
Otodimu said the animals died of poisoning.
He, however, noted that samples from the carcasses had been taken for forensic analysis at the Veterinary Laboratory Centre at Kabete in Nairobi to confirm what caused the animals' death.
"Upon elaborative history from the farmer, the animals died of poisoning that is yet to be confirmed by the relevant veterinary laboratory Centre at Kabete. Prior to this, the signs that were presented in carcasses rule out infectious diseases that cause sudden death such as anthrax, " Otodimu said.
Otodimu said there were some blood oozing from the animals' openings.
"As a veterinary department, we want to have the samples tested and confirmed for the presence of suspected poisoning. At this moment, confirmation is the only diagnosis to give the farmer," Otodimu said.
He said the remaining animals in the flock were all healthy.
"No sign of illness indicated in the animals. Safety measures have been taken to prevent more fatalities," he said.