Autopsy: Machakos cop found dead in car ingested poison

Crime scene

The police officer found dead inside his car in Mwala, Machakos county died of poison, a postmortem report has revealed.

Mwala deputy county commissioner David Tegutwa said a postmotem was conducted on the body on Wednesday.

"The police officer, according to the postmotem conducted on the body today, died of poison ingestion. Investigations are still ongoing to establish if it was poisoning or suicide," Tegutwa told the Star by phone on Wednesday.

The constable was found dead inside a white Toyota probox that was packed along the Machakos - Kitui Road near Kikelenzu junction at Mumoni village in Mwala subcounty on Tuesday.

The matter was reported to police as a suspected suicide incident report.

Members of the public alerted traffic police officers who were on duty along the road after they spotted what they termed as a suspiciously parked vehicle at the said scene of incident.

The traffic officers in turn informed their colleagues from Masii police station who, together with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives attached to Mwala police station, responded to the scene.

They processed and photographed the scene before removing the body to the mourtuary. The vehicle believed to belong to the deceased was towed to police station.

The officers established that the body belongs to a 37-year-old constable. It was lying on the driver's seat when it was discovered with foam oozing from his mouth.

Police said a bottle top believed to be from a Diazinon pesticide container was found inside the vehicle.

The officers also recovered various documents from the car which included the deceased's certificate of appointment, national identification card, and trnsfer orders indicating that he was moved from Mukuyuni police station to Kikumini police station in April 2026.

Elsewhere in Mukaa, Makueni county, officers from Sultan Hamud police station are investigating an incident where human body part was recovered on Wednesday.

The matter was reported to the same police station as recovery of human body parts at 2.15 pm. 

"Police officers on routine patrol received information from members of the public regarding a suspected human body part that had been sighted at Kiungwani area along the Nairobi–Mombasa highway. Police officers from Sultan Hamud police station and officers from DCI Mukaa, visited the scene and recovered what was established to be a human penis believed to belong to an unknown male person," a police report seen by the Star read in part.

Police stated that preliminary observations indicate that the body part may have been severed at a different location and subsequently dumped at the scene.

The scene was processed and the recovered body part removed to Sultan Hamud Sub-County Hospital mortuary for preservation pending identification and further investigations.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives, attached to Mukaa police station have launched investigations into the incident.