Cholera outbreak claims 50 lives in Kenya
As of May 11 there were 2,520 cases reported and 50 deaths.
The release also reports this preventable disease has hit 10 counties, including Nairobi, Migori, Homa Bay, Bomet, Mombasa, Narok, Murang'a, Kirinyiga, Baringo and Kiambu.
In other words, an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhoea, has been slowly but surely sweeping through Kenyan homes and neighbourhoods for 18 weeks now.
Little has been heard from officialdom about why this outbreak has lasted so long and has been met with such feeble preventive measures. The prolonged drought and now the prevailing heavy rains have both been blamed.
But the Met forecast the rains towards the end of the drought, more than a month ago. The burst sewers in the towns and the deluge in the rural areas are therefore not emergencies that suddenly and without warning overtook Kenyans.
This is an abominably poor response and the disaster unpreparedness is appalling.
The Kenyan authorities would do well to mark the words of British journalist Rose George, who has observed, "When Peru had a cholera outbreak in 1991, losses from tourism and agricultural revenue were three times greater than the total money spent on sanitation in the previous decade".
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