Detectives in Machakos Town have begun a probe on the death of a man whose body was found on Tuesday afternoon stuck in a water tank which serves several government offices.
The water tank serves the Teachers Service Commission, Children Department, Social Development Office and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities offices.
The partially decomposed body was pulled out of the 10,000 litre water tank at exactly 2:15 pm through a combined effort by detectives from the Machakos DCIO office and officers from the Machakos Fire department.
Police had to call in the firefighters to help hew a hole at the side of the tank after initial plans of pulling the body through the main inlet failed.
According to Machakos County Children Office Salome Muthama, the anomaly with the water was discovered early on Tuesday, after complaints emerged it was dirty, something which she says was unusual.
The suspicion led her to call the man who carries out cleaning services around the offices to check on the quality of water in the tank leading to the discovery of the body stuffed inside.
“We became suspicious of the tank after the hue of the water suddenly changed which was quite strange. We therefore asked the man who undertook cleaning to check on what could have been the problem and it was then that we discovered the decomposing body,” she told reporters.
Stephen Manthi Muteti, who discovered the body said he first became suspicious after he noticed flies hovering around the inlet at around 11:30 am on Tuesday.
Muteti says by the time he was sent to investigate the tank, a foul smell was emanating from the tank and after inquiring, she discovered the body half submerged in the water tank.
“I had reported for work as usual when I was requested to check on the condition of the water tank after complaints emerged that it was producing dirty water. On reaching the inlet, I discovered the lock had been tampered with and on further scrutiny discovered the body of a man which had been undressed,” he explained.
It is not yet clear how the incident took place, bearing in mind that government offices are usually manned by security officers and the premises are only a stone’s throw from the County Commissioners office that is always manned by police round the clock.
However, Machakos County DCIO boss Charles Mutua said preliminary investigations show the body must have been lying there for the last three to four days.
He nevertheless said detectives have begun investigations on what could have led to the death of the man estimated to be in his mid-thirties.
“It is still early to ascertain what could have led to the death of the man, but we hope to get to the bottom of this once a postmortem analysis has been carried out. What we have established today is that the body has been lying in the tank for close to four days before it was discovered today,” he told reporters.
The body was later taken to the Machakos Level 5 hospital mortuary.
By Samuel Maina
