A rare spectacle unfolded at Muzuri town in Garissa yesterday after a burglar ended his life in a stall he was stealing from.
The unidentified man ingested a pesticide while inside the stall after the proprietor of the shop unexpectedly emerged and raised the alarm that pulled a mammoth crowd.
The proprietor claimed that he closed the shop to attend the afternoon prayer when the man destroyed the padlock of the stall gate using a hammer and gained access to the fully stocked stall.
The charged crowd then furiously banged the door and ordered the intruder to open the door that he locked from inside.
Unresponsive to the shouting match from the swelling crowd that was armed with stones, the proprietor intimated that they decided to dislodge the partly destroyed door to gain access into the stall only to encounter the lifeless body of the thieving man lying on the floor of the stall with traces of foam oozing from the mouth.
The man is suspected to have committed suicide by ingesting pesticide for fear of being lynched, though it is not clear the source of the poisonous chemical he used to end his life.
"Personally, I don't sell any poisonous chemicals. So I think he had the poisonous chemical even before he broke into the stall," claimed the owner.
Police officers who were immediately called in collected the body together with an empty bottle that is suspected to have contained the poisonous chemical.