Insurance CEO’s house help found dead in room after suspected poisoning from burning jiko in Kileleshwa

FILE IMAGE OF A POLICE LINE

Detectives are investigating an incident where a house help was found dead in her room after suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.

The carbon monoxide is suspected to have been emitted by a burning jiko that was found in her room. Irene Wamalwa, 44 failed to wake up for her house chores on Thursday, prompting her employers to go and check on her.

She was the house help to Direct Line Insurance CEO Sammy Kanyi. She stayed alone in a servants’ quarters’ room, which is within the main house, police said.

A burning jiko emits carbon monoxide, which is deadly. Carbon monoxide poisoning is more likely to occur when people are asleep.

Kanyi told police he went and knocked her door but there was no response as she had locked from inside. This forced him to call police and to break in where they found the body on the bed on April 10 in the morning.

The woman was dead out of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. Police who visited the scene said the room did not have ventilation, as the woman had locked the windows.

There was a charcoal jiko beside her bed. It had burned overnight, and it is suspected she used it to warm herself, or it was a suicide mission.

Police moved the body to the mortuary pending autopsy and other investigations. The team wants to establish if the woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning. There is also a possibility she died by suicide or was killed.

Officials advise against using jikos in poorly ventilated rooms. Carbon monoxide poisoning, always referred to as ‘the silent killer’ happens when the toxic odorless 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’ hemoglobin to form poisonous carboxyhemoglobin that prevents blood from transporting oxygen.