Three die trying to get cellphone from toilet

Nairobi - Three men suffocated in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa trying to fetch a woman's cellphone from a long-drop toilet, press reports said on Friday.

The woman, named as university student Dora Mwabela, dropped her phone while using a pit latrine in the Kisumu Ndogo slum neighbourhood on Wednesday night, according to police officers quoted in the reports.

Mwabela offered 1 000 shillings (about 12$) to anyone who could retrieve it. Several people ripped up the floor around the toilet and hung a ladder into the pit.

Patrick Luhakha, 30, was the first to climb down, but failed to respond to calls to return.

Kevin Wambua, a water vendor, climbed down to try to find Luhakha, but slipped and fell into the 12m-deep pit.

Neighbour John Solo then descended the ladder to rescue the other two, but collapsed on the way down, apparently overcome by noxious fumes.

Police on the scene had to restrain a fourth man who wanted to descend into the deadly pit to try to save the others.

"The fumes inside must be extremely poisonous considering the short time it was taking to disable the retrievers," acting Mombasa police chief Peter Njenga told the Daily Nation newspaper.

Source:
Saturday Star Newspaper