A caretaker
of a construction site was found dead in a house after he used a burning jiko
to warm himself from carbon monoxide poisoning in a village in Ndhiwa, Homa Bay
County.
Police said
the incident happened in Konyango area and involved one Bernard Lukamika Mita,
55 who lived in an iron sheet structure.
His body was
found outside the structure with vomit around it.
He had been
sickly since July 12 and was on medication.
Police said
he lit a charcoal jiko to warm himself on July 16 and fell unconscious before
he tried to run out of the structure after realising he was losing breath.
He vomited
blood from inside the house up to the doorstep, where he fell and died.
Police said
the body did not have any visible injuries when they moved it to the mortuary
pending an autopsy.
Carbon
monoxide is regarded a silent killer.
A burning
jiko emits carbon monoxide, which is highly toxic and deadly. Carbon monoxide
poisoning is more likely to occur when people are asleep.
The team
wants to establish if the woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning or it was
set there..
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 one
breathes in carbon monoxide, it enters the blood, mixes with the red blood
cells' haemoglobin to form poisonous carboxyhemoglobin, which prevents the blood
from transporting oxygen.
Officials
warn against using jiko in poorly ventilated areas.
Elsewhere, a
clerk at the Kapchorwa Tea Factory in Nandi County was killed by floods after a
lorry he was travelling in was swept by raging water at Karnel Bridge.
The lorry
was carrying green tea leaves, and on board were the driver, two passengers,
including a conductor and the deceased, identified as Philip Kipyego Kimtai.
Police
officers and members of the public teamed up to rescue the driver and the
conductor, who were taken to a local hospital, while the clerk was swept away by
the raging waters.
The body was
later retrieved from the water and taken to a local mortuary after the
incident.
