Police in Teso North Sub County have launched investigations following the death of Titus Murunga and his three-year-old daughter at Akibui village in Kakapel location on Sunday night of suspected food poisoning.
Murunga and his four daughters had been admitted at Kocholya Level Four Hospital on the wee hours of the fateful night with severe stomach pains.
However two of the daughters were discharged on Monday after their condition stabilized while one was still admitted but in a stable condition.
Confirming the incident Teso North Sub County Police commander David Muange said the family may have consumed poisonous food.
He said Murunga and his children, according to multiple sources from the scene, are said to have eaten beans mixed with unknown leaves adding the bodies of the deceased had white foam oozing from the nose and mouth.
Muange added that officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations have since launched investigations to establish the plant from which the suspected poisonous leaves were plucked from.
He urged members of the public to stop speculation over the incident and wait for postmortem to be conducted to establish the exact cause of death.
Murunga’s wife identified as Lydia Chepkwemoi who prepared the meal is still on the run and police investigating the incident are seeking to establish why she was not affected like the rest of the family.
According to Muange the woman may have escaped for fear of being attacked by Murunga’s relatives and neighbors.
He called on locals to stop issuing threats to the woman and let her present herself to the police wherever she is to explain what may have happened before five of her family members began complaining of stomachache after Sunday evening’s meal.
Muange further revealed that the woman had visited the Akichelesit GSU camp on Sunday at about 11pm asking for a vehicle to ferry a family member to hospital but in vain as all the vehicles in the camp were out on routine patrol.
The area village elder Robert Epale recounted to the press that although the couple had occasional family feuds, they were not extreme for anyone to suspect that the woman may be the one at the center of the incident.
The police ferried the bodies of the deceased to Kocholya Level Four Hospital Mortuary awaiting postmortem