Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki was on Sunday to declare a national disaster following the death in recent weeks of more than 80 people from contaminated maize.
The continued threat from the rotten maize was highlighted over the weekend when 28 bags of the foodstuff were impounded at a girls’ school in eastern Kenya.
Members of parliament from the country’s drought-prone Makueni, Kitui, Mwingi and Machakos districts warned that more people would die unless all the infected maize was seized quickly. They also appealed for donations to set up a fund to help those affected.
”We demand action from the government since the lives of our people, especially in the arid areas, are at stake,” said Daudi Mwanzia, parliamentarian for Machakos town, according to the newspaper the East African Standard.
Health minister Charity Ngilu said last week that as much of as 80% of the maize stocks in the affected areas were contaminated.
Maize, Kenya’s staple food, is milled into flour to make a porridge known as ugali. The contamination occurs when the maize is stored in hot, damp conditions in which a fungus, aflatoxin, flourishes.
More than 180 people have been admitted to hospital over the last six weeks suffering from liver poisoning.
”They are coming in with yellow eyes, swollen legs, vomiting and bleeding,” Dr Jared Omollo from Makindu hospital told the BBC. – Guardian Unlimited Â