ONGWEDIVA – An employee of Ondonga Traditional Authority who was allegedly forced to drink poison by three men who broke into his room at Onethindi last month succumbed to his injuries on Sunday afternoon. His mother Tresia Shipanga confirmed the sad news to New Era.
“As painful as it is, as a family we have accepted what has happened,” said an emotional Shipanga.
The 30-year-old Barakius Kunasha is likely to be buried tomorrow if a post-mortem is concluded on time.
According to Shipanga, Kunasha was initially discharged after spending two weeks in hospital, but was readmitted last Monday.
Following his admission on Monday, Kunasha was taken in for surgery on Friday. “He struggled to eat and was only taking bits of the meals we served him because his throat had become thin because of the poison he took,” his mother said.
Kunasha was left for dead after three men allegedly forced him to ingest something that had a pungent smell.
New Era understands there were two bottle caps found in his room with one of them half-filled with suspected Jeyes Fluid.
A case, CR33/3/2019 administering of poison was opened in March but no arrest has been made as yet.
In an interview at the time, Kunasha said the men broke into his room, held his arms, legs and head and forced him to sit upright and eventually poured the drink into his mouth. He said he could not recognise the men because they wore balaclava masks and gloves. “I did not hear them come in as I was fast asleep when they broke into the room. I only woke up when they were already holding me,” Kunasha said at the time.
In March sources claimed that prior to the poison incident, a young man whose identity is known to the police allegedly visited the place where Kunasha was renting and asked to be shown his room.
Those who were present allegedly refused to show him and asked him to contact Kunasha himself. “When the people asked that they use his cellphone to contact Kunasha the man refused and he requested them not to mention that he came looking for him,” a source said at the time.