Piece by: Robert Omollo and Cyrus Ombati

08 December 2022

• Officials said the two other children are now out of danger but are still receiving treatment at the facility.

• Their mother Monica Atieno Ndenda appealed to well-wishers to help her accord her family a burial.

Two of the four children who were poisoned and stabbed by their father on Tuesday night in Homa Bay succumbed while receiving treatment.

The three-year-old twin brothers succumbed to injuries they sustained in the incident while being attended to by doctors on Thursday morning.

Physician Charles Ocholla said the two, who are twins, aged 3 years died as a result of overwhelming intoxication from the poison which affected their brains and other internal organs.

The medic said the chemical known as organophosphate interfered with some of the internal organs in their bodies.

“The chemical interfered with brain and intestines of the children. They convoluted and experienced excessive vomiting.

There was overwhelming intoxication of the chemical which led to their internal organs being affected." Ocholla said.

The poison had already entered their blood cells and had ingested the chemical.

“They were dealt with by competent medics with experts. Unfortunately they passed away,” he said.

Medical officials at the county referral hospital said one child died at the ICU while his brother died while receiving treatment at the general ward.

The officials said the two other children are now out of danger but are still receiving treatment at the facility.

The children were hospitalised in critical condition after they were poisoned and stabbed by their father before he took his life at their rental house in Nyagoro trading centre, East Kochia Location, Homa Bay county.

The minors, aged between 3 and 9 years, were seriously wounded by their father on Tuesday evening over alleged domestic differences with his wife.

Speaking after the death of the children, their mother Monica Atieno Ndenda appealed to well-wishers to help her accord her family a burial.

She will now be burying three people— her husband and the two children.

Ndeda said she is overwhelmed and may not be able to settle hospital bills which includes fee for surgery, ICU and mortuary.

“I don’t have money to settle the hospital bills and cater for burial of my family. I’m alone and need support,” Ndenda said.

Police said preliminary findings had shown he stabbed two of the children in the stomach using a kitchen knife after he allegedly tried to poison them with Triatix which is used in controlling ticks in livestock.

Police who visited the scene found an empty bottle of a pesticide which they believed was used by the deceased to take away his life after poisoning his children before stabbing them.

Homabay police boss Samson Kine said two of the children were stabbed and two poisoned but they survived but two died later on while in hospital.

He added they had been informed the man had constant wrangles with his wife which prompted her to report the matter to local administrators.

And when the wife returned home, she found her husband locked inside the house and upon pushing the door she found the children lying in a pool of blood and her husband already dead.

Residents rushed the children to Janeiro Private hospital where they were later transferred to the Homa Bay county referral hospital in critical condition.

The deceased's body was moved to the county referral mortuary awaiting postmortem, Kine said the matter is under probe.