Cop found dead in his house with jiko next to his body in Trans Nzoia County

A police officer was found dead in his house in Kiminini, Trans Nzoia County after he had inhaled carbon monoxide.

Constable Nicholas Nzia was missing from his place of work and he was not responding to his calls. He was attached to the Kiungani police station.

This prompted his colleagues to visit his house on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, to check on him.

It was then that they discovered the door was locked from the inside. The colleagues broke into the house where they found his body lying in the seat.

A jiko with charcoal that had burnt was found next to the body.

It is suspected he died by suicide or was trying to warm himself using the jiko when he died through carbon monoxide.

Police said the body was picked up to the mortuary pending an autopsy and other procedures.

The officer lived alone in a rental house. Police said they are investigating the death.

Carbon monoxide is regarded as a silent killer. A burning jiko emits carbon monoxide, which is 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 carboxyhaemoglobin that prevents blood from transporting oxygen.

Officials warn against the use of jiko in poorly ventilated places.

Elsewhere in Baharini, Uasin Gishu County, a three year old boy drowned in an open borehole in a residential compound.

The boy was playing with other children when he slid and fell into the borehole that was open and drowned.

The body was later removed from the scene and taken to the mortuary pending an autopsy and investigations, police said.