Police in Teso North Sub-County have launched investigations into the death of a man and his three-year-old daughter who died of suspected food poisoning on the night of Sunday, November 27, 2022.
The man, Titus Murunga and his four daughters had been admitted at Kocholya Level Four Hospital in the wee hours of the fateful night with severe stomach pains.
However, two of the daughters were discharged on Monday after their condition stabilized while one was still admitted but in stable condition.
Confirming the incident Teso North Sub County Police commander David Muange said the family may have consumed poisonous food.
According to multiple sources at the scene who spoke to Muange, Murunga and his children ate beans mixed with unknown leaves prior to the incident. Muange added that the deceaseds' had white foam oozing from the nose and mouth.
The police boss added that officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have since launched investigations to establish the plant from which the suspected poisonous leaves were plucked.
He urged members of the public to stop speculation over the incident and wait for a postmortem to be conducted to establish the exact cause of death.
Murunga’s wife identified, Lydia Chepkwemoi, who prepared the meal is still on the run and police investigating the incident are seeking to establish why she was not affected like the rest of the family.
According to Muange, the woman may have escaped for fear of being attacked by Murunga’s relatives and neighbours.
He called on locals to stop issuing threats to the woman and let her present herself to the police wherever she is so as to explain what may have happened before the incident.
Muange further revealed that the woman had visited the Akichelesit GSU camp on Sunday at about 11:00 pm asking for a vehicle to ferry a family member to the hospital but in vain as all the vehicles in the camp were out on routine patrol.
The area village elder Robert Epale recounted to the press that although the couple had occasional family feuds, they were not that extreme for anyone to suspect that the woman may be the one at the centre of the incident.
The police ferried the bodies of the deceased to Kocholya Level Four Hospital Mortuary awaiting postmortem.
