Police rule out food poisoning as cause of recruits’ deaths
Police Spokesman Charles Owino. He says the force was impartial during the election period. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- One of the recruits collapsed during physical training and complained that his heart was racing.
- The recruits were close friends and belonged to the same squad.
Mystery surrounds the deaths of two Kenya Police College recruits in Nyeri as officials ruled out food poisoning, saying they never consumed food from outside the institution.
Police spokesperson Charles Owino denied earlier reports that the recruits might have suffered food poisoning after eating snacks during a routine route march outside the institution.
As part of the recruits’ training, they run for several kilometres outside the college every Saturday afternoon.
TRAINING
Mr Owino however said the recruits never left the institution and that all training on Saturday was done within the college.
“On that day, there was no route march. All the training was conducted within the institution,” he said.
The police spokesman said there was no way the two recruits could have accessed food from outside the institution, ruling out food poisoning as a possible cause of death.
“They did not leave the institution so there is no way they ate foreign food. And if it were food poisoning it would have affected more than just the two recruits,” he said.
COLLAPSE
According to the latest information given by police, one of the recruits collapsed during physical training and complained that his heart was palpitating.
He was taken to Consolata Mathari hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The second recruit collapsed hours later after taking a shower and fell from his top bunk bed.
He was also rushed to the same hospital where he was pronounced dead.
MEDICAL RECORDS
Questions have been raised over the causes of the deaths, especially because the recruits were close friends and belonged to the same squad.
Mr Owino also said the two had no history of illness since they joined the college in May.
He noted that there were no records of them being unwell.
“This is a coincidence and I cannot comment further on the cause of death until we get the postmortem results,” Mr Owino said.
AUTOPSY
The police boss however did not rule out that rigorous physical exercise as the cause.
“The training is tough and medical conditions can occur at any time. Maybe it was the case but this is just a hypothesis.”
Postmortem exams will be done once the families of the two men arrive at the college.
