‘poverty, ignorance and disease.’ were the challenges Kenyans faced during independence

By KAMAU MUTUNGA

KENYA: The three key challenges that faced Kenya as an infant nation were ‘poverty, ignorance and disease.’ While the first two have had their fair share of pros and cons, disease has been an opponent that has boxed the country into the red corner and not necessarily because medics are currently on strike.

That makes Kenya a sick nation, literally, a situation aggravated by the fact that our “medical anthropology” reports show we hardly take health care seriously.

Consider Western Kenya and the fight against malaria that claims over 300 lives every month. That death toll is equivalent to a 300-seater Boeing 767 crashing on a mountain monthly!

According to Western Provincial Director of Public Health and Sanitation Quinto Ahindukha, 30 per cent of the over 300 malaria-related deaths in Western Kenya by April 2011, were children. That is 1,200 souls not celebrating their first birthday.

Infection rate

To “quinine” these sad state of affairs, multiple donor agencies galvanised the Rollback Malaria campaign in 1998. The aim was to pool Sh40 billion war chest to “half the prevalence of malaria across Africa by 2010.”

By 2002, the kitty had realised Sh16 billion, and two years later WHO found that the rate of infection had not reduced, but instead increased by 12 per cent. In 2010, WHO lamented that the fight against malaria was being wedged “against a background of increasing malaria burden.”

One cause of this scenario was the proboscis of culture that sucked anti-malaria campaigns into the backburner in regions like Western Kenya.

The Rollback Malaria crusaders encouraged the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) by pregnant women and children not yet eligible to enroll in kindergarten.

Use of mosquito nets rose from seven per cent in 2004 to 67 per cent in three years. That saw malaria-related deaths get ‘doomed’ by 44 per cent. To eradicate the malaria menace, the nets were issued free of charge.

But the fight against malaria was far from being won. Maseno University School of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University and ICIPE Kenya’s Mbita branch, found that the bulk of long-lasting nets were being used for fishing and drying tilapia, ngenge and omena. Reason? The nets were accessible and fish dried faster on the nets.

A large number of children also contracted measles due to lack of immunisation.

Measles cases

The reason behind this was that pregnant women in Western Kenya skirted pre and post-natal care for fear of being tested for HIV/Aids. Midwives would do just as fine.

Measles cases shot up alongside malaria, damning the situation for which a double-barreled campaign was launched.

It involved giving free mosquito nets to mothers who took their children for measles jabs.

But measles and malaria cases were unrelenting since most mothers were taking their children for immunisation twice so as to receive two nets; one for home usage and the other one for fishing in Lake Victoria.

The nets were not tailor-made for fishing and thus wore first, necessitating the use of the spare one at home, exposing children to malaria.

Something else. Only one injection is required for measles for maximum efficacy. That the mothers immunised their children twice rendered the anti-measles campaign useless.