The Judicial Police in Buea, South West Region, have launched an investigation into the tragic deaths of three young children from the same home. The children collapsed in Church on Sunday, September 29, and local hospital staff confirmed their deaths minutes later.
On that Sunday morning, Travis, Keila, and Grant, aged five, three, and one, enjoyed Indomie noodles prepared at home before heading to worship at Full Gospel Church Molyko, Buea. They were the only members of their family of six to partake in the meal.
Their older brother, the eldest child of Buea-based businessman Stephen Mwambo, prepared the meal. The mother fed the children before leaving for Church.
During the sermon, Keila and Grant, the two youngest siblings, cried and complained of stomach aches.
They grew weaker and eventually collapsed, prompting a rush to Solidarity Hospital in Molyko, where doctors confirmed their deaths.
Five-year-old Travis walked with his parents to the hospital and soon began showing similar symptoms.
He collapsed, received oxygen, but tragically died.
“Traumatized and Devastated”
Stephen Mwambo, the children’s father, left the hospital to get money. He received a call informing him that his three children had died.
He expressed to journalists in Buea his shock, trauma, and devastation after losing three children in a day.
“It’s really a traumatising and devastating situation for me…,” he said.
“My wife, she’s there; she’s devastated, I am also very, very devastated but I trust God all is well. My son is there; he’s fine but our children are lying in the mortuary.”
He said the children’s death remained a mystery but an ongoing police investigation was the only thing the family could rely on for answers.
“We have suspicions… but it’s only from the investigation they will be doing in the days ahead that we’ll know what is the cause of the death of my three children,” he said.
The bodies of the children were taken to the Buea Regional Hospital mortuary, where they have been preserved pending burial.
Police Investigation
Meanwhile, in the wake of the tragedy, the Third District Police station in Molyko, Buea, was alerted about the incident.
The commissioner and some officers could be spotted around Solidarity Hospital and later at Mr Mwambo’s house where they reportedly collected the food samples and statements from both parents.
Mr Mwambo recounted: “The Molyko police were there at the hospital. The Commissioner and some elements, they came to my place because I told them that they ate food and just the three of them ate.
“They ate Indomie that the brother made for them. The mother fed them and they were fine in Church.
“They were jumping and you know children playing. So the Commissioner took the plastics of Indomie, the frying pan where it was made and went to the Regional Hospital and from there the State Counsel was there I think the judicial police and they gave a report of what happened.”
The tragic death left no one indifferent. Dozens of Full Gospel Church Christians, family members and other well-wishers have been consoling Mr Mwambo and his wife.
