A one-year-old girl died while her mother was left fighting for her life after they were overcome by smoke and carbon monoxide fumes from a charcoal stove inside their rented house in Nakuru County.
The incident occurred on Friday, July 24, in the Nyonjoro area under Lanet Police Station in Nakuru North Sub-County.
According to police, the child’s father returned home at around 3.20 p.m. and found the house’s doors and windows shut. After opening a window, he saw his wife, aged 23, lying asleep in the sitting room and struggling to breathe.
She was with their one-year-one-month-old daughter, who was unresponsive.
The father raised the alarm, prompting neighbours to rush to the house. The child was taken to Nyonjoro Health Centre, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police officers and detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) visited the scene and established that Monica had been cooking beans using a charcoal jiko inside the house with all the doors and windows closed.
Investigators believe she developed a severe headache and weakness due to the accumulation of carbon monoxide fumes before falling asleep with her daughter in the sitting room.
The mother was also rushed to Nyonjoro Health Centre, where she is receiving treatment and is reported to be in stable condition.
The child’s body was moved to the Annex Nakuru Farewell Home for preservation pending a post-mortem examination.
Police have urged members of the public to avoid using charcoal stoves or other fuel-burning appliances in poorly ventilated rooms, warning that carbon monoxide is a colourless and odourless gas that can cause unconsciousness and death within minutes.
Elsewhere, a family in Langas, Uasin Gishu County, is mourning the death of a one-year-eight-month-old boy who drowned in an open well after he wandered off while playing in the family’s compound.
Police said the incident occurred on Friday, July 24, in the Langas area of Kapseret Sub-County.
According to the police, the child’s mother had left him playing in the compound as she attended to household chores.
At around 11 a.m., she realized she could no longer find him and immediately reported him missing at Langas Police Station while also alerting neighbours.
Police officers, accompanied by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kapseret, visited the scene and established that the toddler, identified as Johnstone Kimiru, had fallen into an open well within the compound and drowned.
Members of the public, assisted by the Uasin Gishu County rescue team, retrieved the child’s body from the well.
Crime scene investigators processed the scene before the body was transferred to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) Mortuary, where it is awaiting a post-mortem examination.
Police have urged parents and guardians to keep constant watch over young children and ensure that open wells and other hazardous areas within residential compounds are properly secured to prevent similar tragedies.
