Jiggers show no mercy to old and young in Kericho

By NIKKO TANUI

With Kericho’s expansive tea plantations, large farms full of cattle and the panorama that creates the image of a perfect habitation, the last thing you want to hear about is jigger infestation among residents.

But it is now emerging that many families are suffering from the condition.

The sight of dirty, jigger infested toes and fingers of Joel Ng’eno, 55, from Chepkemel village in Soin/Sigowet constituency could make the faint-hearted cringe.

The father of four says he has been suffering from this condition for 35 years. “I was first attacked by jiggers in 1979. At first, I tried to remove them using a needle but the jiggers kept multiplying to a point I could not manage to get them out anymore and resigned myself to fate,” Mr Ng’eno says.

The situation was complicated further by the fact that he has one disabled arm, which he couldn’t use to remove the jiggers on some parts of his body.

Constant pain

Worse still, Ng’eno passed the jiggers to his firstborn son, 23-year-old Robert Koech, who was infested when he was a toddler. “Jiggers have literally made our bodies their home for as long as I can remember. My family members have been living with this menace,” Koech says.

Koech blames the jigger infestation for his poor performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations.

The condition has rendered him jobless due to constant pain.

Men are not the only ones affected in Soin/Sigowet constituency. Grace Koech, a mother of seven, can’t recall when she was first infested by the pests but says “it was many years ago”.

She pitifully looks at her children who are wasting away due to the pests.  “Though jiggers have not attacked my children on a full scale, I fear for their future because they might end up like me,” she says, as she scratches her dirty toes.

Gladys Chepng’etich, a nursery school pupil at Chepkemel Primary School, is also infested by jiggers on her toes.

Her father David Cheruiyot fears the condition may affect her education as well as that of his two other children.

“The jigger menace is like a family thing to us, and I am at a loss on what to do,” Cheruiyot says, his eyes fixed on the horizon.

He regrets that his wife refused to turn up during a jigger campaign organised by Ken Cheruiyot Kuley at Chepkemel Primary School.

Kuley, who is in his early 30s, has been spearheading an anti-jiggers campaign. The Economics graduate says he took the initiative after he came across a young man in his neighborhood who could no longer walk due to jigger infestation.

The man had also been  abandoned by his wife. “I couldn’t help but take the young man to Sigowet sub-district Hospital for treatment and bear the cost,” Kuley said.

When The Standard on Sunday caught up with Samuel Bii, 30, at Sigowet Sub-district Hospital, he said he will seek his estranged wife once the jiggers are removed from his feet.

“I hope she will accept me back, since I have become a changed and clean man. I also plan to find something to do to fend for myself and my family,” Bii said.

Personal hygiene

Kuley says more than 80 families in three constituencies in Kericho County are infested by jiggers — sixty in Soin/Sigowet and 20 in Kipkelion East and West constituencies.

Speaking at Chepkemel village in Kericho West District when he led a jigger awareness campaign recently, Kuley said more cases were yet to be documented.

More than 30 individuals were treated and given anti-jiggers drugs, new pair of shoes and other personal hygiene items.

“The stigma associated with jigger infestation prevents more victims from coming out,” Kuley says. “It’s sad to note that whereas jiggers continue to ravish hundreds of people in the county and rendering many others  who would otherwise be productive in the society useless, the issue has remained one of the things being swept under the carpet by our leaders”.

Kuley works with Ahadi Kenya Trust, an NGO renowned for its anti-jigger campaigns, to eradicate jiggers in the county.

Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony acknowledges that there are some areas where residents are infested with jiggers.

“During my ward visits I was recently in Kabasweti village and the situation was so terrible I saw children who have been eaten up, and I was moved to tears. I also went to a school in Kapsaos ward and the toe nails of pupils there had been opened up by jiggers. They couldn’t even run or kick a ball, and you can’t believe you are in Kericho County,” Mr Chepkwony says.

The governor says he has reached a deal with the Kenya Red Cross Society which will  donate 15,000 pairs of shoes to pupils in the affected schools.