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A six-year-old boy lost his life as other family members were admitted at Nyamira Referral Hospital after consuming suspected poisonous cassava.
Naomi Kerubo and her four children consumed the suspected poisonous cassava that she got from a neighbour where she worked as a casual labourer on Sunday.
“I had gone to work at a nearby farm as a hired casual for that day. After that the neighbour asked me to get some cassava for lunch,” she said.
At around 6 pm, Naomi and her children started experiencing abdominal pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and dizziness.
One of her children, now deceased collapsed, prompting Naomi to call for help from neighbours who rushed her and other children to the Ekerenyo sub-county hospital for treatment.
At Ekerenyo the five received first aid before they were referred to the Nyamira County Referral Hospital for specialised treatment, where the six-year-old boy succumbed.
Another child is admitted at the Intensive Care Unit but Naomi and two other kids were treated and discharged on Monday.
Nyamira County Referral Hospital acting medical superintendent Angela Ogendi said the mother and the two children are in stable condition.
“The one that is in ICU is stabilising and once she is okay we will have her discharged to the normal ward, the rest of the family members are in stable condition,” Ogendi said.
At Naomi’s home arrangements for the burial of her son are taking place, and neighbours have called upon the experts to help ascertain whether the cassava the family ate was fit for consumption.
“We have planted cassava and we have been consuming cassava, but we have never experienced death from taking cassava. This is the first such an incident is happening in our locality and we are all shocked,” Rister Ongwanka a resident said.
“We are calling upon experts to help us know how the cassava that this family consumed ended up causing death and health hazards.”
by ALVIN RATEMO