Malaria ravages Baringo villages amid shortage of health centres

Molinga Katodo, 15, lies on the ground under an acacia tree in Kapau, Tiaty, Baringo county, with a water drip precariously suspended from a tree branch on August 28, 2024. He is one of patients receiving treatment in the area. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Chepochesum Kareta cuddles her one-year-old son groaning in pain, he has just received an intravenous drip after testing positive for malaria.

Due to shortage of health facilities in the area, Chepochesum, 22, and other patients are forced to seek help from the private clinic at Kapau within Tirioko, Tiaty Sub County.

When the Saturday Standard visited the area, we were met with distressing scenes, patients sleeping under trees with intravenous drips inserted into their hands and suspended on trees.

The only health facility, a private clinic in the area owned by Abraham Arektum, accommodates the locals from Tirioko as the county reports an upsurge in cases of malaria.

The mother of three says that her children and co-wives were sick following the malaria outbreak in the area. She said that she visited the clinic after traveling for over 20 kilometers seeking medication.

“We have a challenge, a big problem that has existed for a long time, we don’t have a health facility, becoming a problem for them to seek medication,” she said.

Newborns and their mothers are the most affected, Chepochesum explained that their husbands were out and couldn’t seek medication due to the distance.

Chepochesum was with her co-wife Chepochopochot Kareta adding that her other co-wife was at home taking care of the other sick children.

She said her family had been in and out of the private clinic for the past two weeks.

“We don’t know what to do, we have been neglected by the government, and with poor state of roads, it becomes a problem to get treatment in the area,” she said.

The distance when seeking medication at Chemolingot Hospital, she claimed, was far and has led to loss of lives.

The locals, Chepochesum said, depend on the clinic for medication with the nearest government facility located at Kapedo.

“Unfortunately, there is a government hospital at Kapedo which is about 40 kilometers but we cannot go there because of the animosity among the community living there, we have to trek for over 100 kilometers to Chemolingot,” she said.

Five years ago, she said, the Ministry of Health gave them mosquito nets and since then, nothing has been done to salvage the situation.

She appealed to the government to intervene by constructing more health facilities in the area to curb the increased cases of endemic diseases.

Chepochesum says that she lives within Lomelo making it difficult for her to travel as she has to be armed with water and food to sustain herself and the children. Chepochopochot said that her three-week-old son was diagnosed with malaria.

She claimed that the disease has made it hard for them to fend for the children as their husband was not around. “We can’t get help, our children are sick, we have tried to use traditional medicine but it is not working,” she said.

Chepochesum claimed that she was in the clinic on Tuesdays and Wednesdays given the condition of her son. The clinic has been a lifesaver in the area she said, but she is worried about the high number of patients streaming in to seek treatment.

According to the Malaria Control Coordinator in Baringo, Faith Changwony, in Akoret, 55 percent of the 11 tested cases were positive. In Kongor, out of 143 cases, five tested positive while 31 showed symptoms of malaria.

Kongor dispensary, located in a remote area and with poor road network, is the only healthcare facility established over 10 years ago but is still incomplete. Arektum, a lab technician, appealed to the government to provide malaria drugs and mosquito nets to contain the situation.

Being a pastoralist community, Arektum noted that locals live in makeshift houses exposing them to cold, mosquitoes, and respiratory diseases. Poverty and culture, he says, were a challenge in the area hindering locals from accessing medication.

Health CEC Solomon Sirma confirmed the upsurge malaria cases in the county due to the heavy rains. He said that the county had received mosquito nets which will be distributed to affected places soon.

This week, the Global Fund through the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority has distributed 290,000 mosquito nets in areas regarded as high risk of malaria–endemic across the country.

The nets are aimed at curbing the spread of malaria, which has so far claimed lives in Baringo County. In Baringo North, Principal Secretary for Public Health, Mary Muriuki said among the efforts is the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and so far, 290,000 free nets have been distributed in three counties.

Additional reporting by Hilda Otieno and George Sayagie