Police have confirmed they are investigating an incident, on Saturday, of suspected contaminated food served in Ngoma and Kayonza districts in which at least 40 people have since been admitted to different hospitals in Eastern Province and in Kigali.
Police have confirmed they are investigating an incident, on Saturday, of suspected contaminated food served in Ngoma and Kayonza districts in which at least 40 people have since been admitted to different hospitals in Eastern Province and in Kigali.
At least 15 people have since been discharged.
The said contaminated food was served by East Land Motel at the graduation ceremony of Open University of Tanzania (OUT), located in Ngoma, and at the hotel facility in Kayonza, on Saturday.
Police spokesperson Celestin Twahirwa confirmed that police initiated investigations into the incident later that day after it received the unfortunate information.
"On Saturday alone, we recorded 17 cases of people who were admitted at Kanimba clinic in Ngoma and some of them have been referred to other hospitals including Rwanda Military and Kibungo hospitals and are getting much better, he said.
"On Sunday, we received information of another group of infected people that also had its lunch at the hotel in Kayonza, including a resident of Kirehe, who died at Kirehe hospital, on Sunday, under similar suspicion.”
Postmortem
Twahirwa added that 23 other people, who include motel staff, are currently admitted to Gahini Hospital.
"All investigation teams including Police, medical and hygiene teams have since been activated and so far, three motel staff, who include its chef, have been interrogated and temporarily detained to facilitate ongoing investigations,” he told The New Times.
"The hygiene team has also temporarily closed the motel, citing unhygienic issues.”
"The Rwanda National Police Medico-legal team is currently conducting postmortem of the deceased resident of Kirehe as we also await reports from other medical teams in hospitals where victims are admitted, to inform the next course of action.”
He appealed to all those that had a meal either at the motel or at the University graduation that day to seek "immediate medical care,” and urged anyone with information on the incident, to provide it to support the ongoing investigations.
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