Canadian authorities charge individual from Kenya in connection with 3-year-old’s poisoning death

In Canada, a man from Kenya, aged 45, has been accused of poisoning two children, resulting in the death of one child due to a toxic substance found in her cereal.

The individual, Francis Ngugi, was apprehended on Sunday and now faces charges including administering a harmful substance with the intent to endanger life, causing bodily harm without lawful justification, and criminal negligence leading to death.

A three-year-old child who died after being poisoned, according to the police, has a Toronto man who entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder.

The plea was entered on Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by Francis Ngugi, 47.

On March 7, 2021, Bernice Nantanda Wamala, the girl, passed away following her consumption of cereal for breakfast at a friend’s house. There was poison in the cereal.

According to the police, Ngugi got a “controlled substance” from his job, sodium nitrite, which was then added to kids’ cereal for breakfast.

An agreed statement of facts submitted to the court states that Ngugi meant for the lady he had grown fascinated with, Zahra Issa, to consume the cereal and get sick.

Rather, after Bernice and Issa’s kid had the cereal during a sleepover at Issa’s house, they needed to be admitted to the hospital. According to the authorities, one of the kids passed away while in the hospital, and the other one made a full recovery.

After an autopsy revealed the presence of the banned substance, the Ontario Coroner’s Office and the police launched an investigation.

Beginning in September 2020, Ngugi and Issa had been romantically involved.

Early in 2019, Ngugi, a Kenyan refugee claimant, met Issa at an adult education institution. But Issa had an older daughter and was married to a man in Tanzania. She and her younger daughter, Samarah Sameer, were residing in Toronto.

“Mr. Ngugi showed Ms. Issa his love on a regular basis. He asked her to talk to him, to spend time with him, again and again. Mr. Ngugi’s passion for Ms. Issa turned into an obsession as she frequently rejected his advances, and he soon developed jealousy. The facts claim that “Mr. Ngugi frequently turned grumpy and antagonistic when Ms. Issa did not reciprocate his feelings.”

A amount of sodium nitrite that had spilled at his place of employment, Griffith Foods, a food processing facility in Scarborough, was taken by Ngugi, a cleaning custodian who had been elevated to the position of sanitation lead, in February 2021. Someone had asked him to tidy it up. Ngugi was aware of the substance’s toxicity to people.

“Francis, if you ingest less than a teaspoon of this, it will kill you within an hour,” his supervisor had warned him of the risks.

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Ngugi put the sodium nitrite in Golden Morn cereal that was kept in a Similac Baby Formula container in Issa’s Scarborough home in the late winter of 2021.

“Mr. Ngugi meant for Ms. Issa to eat the cereal and get sick by adding sodium nitrite to it. Mr. Ngugi was aware that sodium nitrite was poisonous and would probably kill Ms. Issa. He was also aware that the flat was home to Ms Issa’s child. The facts claim that “He proceeded despite knowing that both were at risk of consuming the cereal.”

Issa was requested to watch her neighbour Maurine Mirembe’s three-year-old daughter, Bernice Wamala, on March 6.

Bernice and Samarah were both given grain by Issa.

“On March 7, 2021, after consuming the cereal, Bernice fell ill quickly and had to be taken to the hospital.” The statement of facts states that attempts were made to save lives, but they were not successful.

Bernice passed away at 2:16 PM that day following many seizures and two heart attacks. It was eventually discovered that methemoglobinemia brought on by acute nitrate/nitrite poisoning was the cause of death. The absence of oxygen in the body’s cells is the mechanism underlying methemoglobinemia-induced mortality.”

When Samarah started exhibiting identical symptoms, she was sent to the hospital right away, received treatment, and recovered in four days.

Ngugi said investigators he was unaware of a hazardous drug, but
According to the statement of facts, Ngugi denied having any knowledge of the controlled substance to the police.

Ngugi persisted in his pursuit of Issa, but she rejected him. She permanently broke their relationship in May 2021.

Ngugi has been detained since his arrest on June 19, 2021.

On November 2, a sentence hearing has been set.