Four students at Moi Girls Secondary School in Mandera County have been hospitalised after contracting cholera, and more cases are expected.
According to the school administration, the patients are Form Four students who returned to school last week.
Public health officers who visited the facility issued prevention guidelines in the hopes of preventing further infections.
According to Hassan Somo, a public health officer, Mandera East has been hit the hardest, with 130 cases reported so far.
"Since we admit an average of 20 cases per day, the disease is spreading rapidly. We have admitted 136 cases since the pandemic's end," Somo said.
According to sources familiar with the cholera situation, three children have so far died as a result of the disease.
Eateries closed
To prevent the spread of the disease, the county public health department has closed all eateries, with officials going around day and night to educate the public about the dangers of the disease.
Some traders were fighting the closures, claiming that their businesses were unfairly targeted and that they were ambushed without warning. "Public health officials refused to listen to us even after we begged them to give us guidelines to combat the disease spread," said resident David Kamau .
Julia Kasioki, the owner of a restaurant, said the closure notice was written in a local dialect that she does not understand.
"Officials moved around in a vehicle equipped with speakers, but I couldn't understand the message because it was written in Somali," she said. Adawa Mohamed, the director of public health, refuted the traders' claims, saying proper communication was made.
