Kitale; Kenya: A Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations candidate of Matisi Primary School yesterday choked to death during prayers ahead of the exams on Tuesday.
The incident is said to have happened as the deceased joined other pupils who had been assigned to prepare food for parents and other guests expected at the event.
Pupils who witnessed the incident said the boy swallowed a piece of hot chapati before he collapsed.
They said they immediately alerted their teachers who rushed him to Kitale District Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The prayers-cum-farewell party for the candidates at the school located about six kilometres from Kitale town turned into grief as pupils and parents who had turned up for the event mourned the boy's death.
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Head teacher Lucas Wanyonyi said the pupil was among their top candidates and was expected to perform well in the KCPE examinations that begin tomorrow.
Meanwhile, shock and grief gripped Kaplelgo village in Bureti constituency, Kericho County, after a mother threw her three children in a river before jumping into the river and drowning.
Kisiara location chief Richard Ngeno said the children, aged six and three years, and nine months, were thrown into Chemosit/Kipranye River at 3pm on Saturday.
"A village elder alerted me and we immediately mobilised villagers to begin a search-and-rescue mission, but so far we haven't recovered even a single body," he said.
Mr Ngeno appealed to the national government to send professional divers to the location to help recover the bodies.
The woman's mother, Gladys Tonui, said her daughter had come home at 11am on the fateful day after a domestic dispute with her husband.
PREPARED LUNCH
"My daughter came home complaining that her husband was abusive and had neglected the family. She refused to share all the details but I welcomed her and told her to settle down first then we would address the matter later," she said.
Ms Tonui added that her daughter unpacked her bags and prepared lunch for the whole family before claiming she wanted to fetch water from the river.
"She told the children to accompany her to the river; no one suspected she was planning to drown them and herself," she said.
Susan Rotich, a member of the Catholic Women Peace Makers, said suicide cases were on the rise and called for the setting up of counselling units to offer emotional support to residents experiencing social and psychological problems.
