A middle-aged man collapsed and died on Sunday afternoon near Roysambu footbridge on Thika Road.

Witnesses said they saw the man walking before he slowly sat on the pavement and then collapsed.

“I saw him coming. He was eating some biscuits and then he sat down. We thought he was drunk because he was walking slowly. He then sat down and collapsed which drew us closer as we tried to help. Some of my friends thought he was epileptic and so we started giving him first aid until the police came and told us he was dead,” said Amos Kibere, a matatu tout at Roysambu bridge.

Police officers from the nearby Kasarani regional base confirmed him dead shortly after they arrived.

“The man is dead but we cannot tell what killed him, the biggest challenge is identifying him because he has already been robbed,” said one of the officers.

Efforts to identify the man and inform his relatives were not easy as people had already stolen some of his personal property before he collapsed and died.

Police, however, recovered his phone from one of the bystanders and might use it to trace his relatives.

Panicked bystanders feared the man could have succumbed to coronavirus, as it has been witnessed in some cases.