Prof Bwibo’s fight against jiggers

By Joe Ombuor

Prof Nimrod Bwibo is very much at home removing jiggers from victims’ feet and fingers as he is with his peers nurturing future professionals at university campuses.

Frank and simple almost to a fault, the 80-year-old professor of paediatrics at the University of Nairobi does not hesitate to disclose to the world he suffered jiggers himself during his childhood.

Prof Bwibo helps pupils of Miyafo Primary School in Busia County remove jiggers.  Photos: Joe Ombuor/Standard

"The damage the parasites left on my feet and toes remains to date. I hate seeing people going through what I underwent. That is why I am into jigger eradication as a way of giving back to society," he says unfazed.

Prof Bwibo today doubles up as Chairman of the African Development and Emergency Organisation (Adeo), a non-governmental organisation that is fighting the jigger menace as part of its health and educational undertaking in Kenya and other countries.

A victim of ringworms as well during his formative years, Bwibo will surprise you with his abundant knowledge of herbs that are effective against fungal and other ailments. With a tinge of humour he says, "That does not make me a herbalist though."

This writer met the soft-spoken academic at Miyafo Primary School in Busia County where five primary schools had converged to mark the International Hand-washing day.

Adeo was there with Unicef for an anti-jigger campaign that saw pupils and other members of the local population receive a free anti- jigger therapy.

On spotting a schoolboy with powdery streaks on his head, Bwibo dashed into a nearby thicket and to everyone’s amazement, emerged clutching a tuft of nyabend winyo, a wild berry with leaves believed to be effective against fungal infections. The ringworm patches disappeared, leaked clean by the sap, as he rubbed the succulent leaves on the boy’s scalp.

"I learnt the trick from my grandmother who used the herb on my own head," he says.

Bwibo inspired afflicted pupils by using himself as a living example of how one can rise from jiggers and other afflictions associated with deprivation to a success story.

"When I suffered jiggers, the parasites were fought with sharp thorns and hot water that added to the misery by scalding the victims’ feet. Today you have the advantage of hydrogen peroxide and other anti-jigger chemicals in conventional use," Bwibo told scores of pupils as he and Adeo executive director Bernard Wesonga washed the pupils’ feet and pulled out the white, pulpy creatures, some bulgy with loads of eggs.

The loose loamy soils that characterise the landscape in most of Busia County is ideal for jiggers, says Syphirin Waswa Andakwa, the public health officer in charge of Matayo’s Division where 10 per cent of the about 1,000 house holds are affected.

Adult beneficiaries

He says each of the division’s 37 primary schools has a sizeable population of jigger afflicted pupils who find it difficult to concentrate on their studies, hence dragging back the standards of education.

Asked what triggers jigger attacks, Andakwa avers that poverty plays an important role but singles out neglect as the bigger culprit.

"That is why children from unstable families and elderly males living alone are more vulnerable. Females are better at observing hygiene irrespective of their age," he says.

Bwibo agrees: "In my case, poverty was not a factor. I suffered some degree of neglect when my father sent me, as custom required, to look after my maternal uncle’s livestock. It was lack of proper care that exposed me to jiggers and ringworms – not poverty.

"The neglect so angered my father and paternal uncle that they decided never to let me go there again. I started school soon afterwards. That was in 1937.

Livingstone Andere Kimwaire, 74, who lives alone a few hundred metres away from Miyafo Primary School, is an exemplar of how jiggers can subdue elderly men.

Kimwaire can hardly straighten his fingers that are heavily infested with the parasites. His toes and heels have festering wounds. He was among the adult beneficiaries of the campaign.

The former employee of Kenya Railways leads a solitary life. Dr Wesonga says Adeo has identified scores of elderly men like Kimwaire for rehabilitation.

"We have reached 20 schools where we give therapy to afflicted pupils besides public education."