NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 2 – A house help was on Tuesday morning found dead in Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Karen residence.
The Prime Minister’s wife Ida Odinga told journalists that the 45-year-old woman had lit a charcoal stove (jiko) to warm herself before she retired to bed.
”Yesterday (Monday) she was okay up to last night up to 9.30pm when she went to bed. In the morning she did not wake up (and) when the other fellow workers went to check on her they found her lying on the bed lifeless. She had vomited on her bed,” Mrs Odinga said.
“We noticed something was amiss when she failed to report to work as usual in the morning,” said a worker at the residence who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Mrs Odinga said they had already contacted the next of kin who were present when the media visited the Prime Minister’s residence in Karen.
She added that a post-mortem would determine the exact cause of the death since she never had any health problems since she started working there as a cleaner in 2007.
”It is difficult to know the cause of the death because for the years that she has been here she’s been a very healthy person. I am sure that the post mortem will be able to reveal the cause of Leonida’s death so we don’t know whether it was (inhalation from) the jiko but I’m sure that their investigation and the post-mortem will be able to tell us cause of the death,” she said.
Mrs Odinga who said her family was shocked by her death described the late as a hardworking person who carried out her duties meticulously and with dedication.
Nairobi Provincial Police Boss Anthony Kibuchi was among senior officers who rushed to the scene as police launched a probe.
The city has in the last two month’s recorded unusually low temperatures.
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