Killer Maize Sparks Kenya Alarm...

[Guest Lottie]

Several Kenyan politicians have urged the government to declare a national disaster following the death of more than 80 people from contaminated maize.

Twenty-eights bags of poisoned maize were impounded at a girls' school in eastern Kenya on Saturday.

MPs from drought-prone Makueni, Kitui, Mwingi and Machakos districts warned that unless all poisoned maize was seized quickly, more people would die.

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," Daudi Mwanzia, MP for Machakos town, said on the East African Standard newspaper website.

Health Minister Charity Ngilu was quoted last week as saying that 80% of locally available maize stocks were affected.

"We are now withdrawing everything that is in the stores in those areas," the minister said at the time.

Maize, a staple food in Kenya, is milled into flour to make a porridge known as ugali.

The patients have symptoms of liver failure, they are coming in with yellow eyes, swollen legs, vomiting and bleeding from nose - Makindu Hospital's Dr Jared Omollo

The contamination occurs when the maize is stored in hot, damp conditions.

The fungus, aflatoxin, flourishes in these circumstances and is poisonous to the liver when consumed.

More than 180 people have been admitted to hospital over the last six weeks suffering from such poisoning.

"The patients have symptoms of liver failure, they are coming in with yellow eyes, swollen legs, vomiting and bleeding from the nose," Dr Jared Omollo from Makindu hospital in one of the worst affected areas, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"It's the first time we have dealt with this magnitude of aflatoxin poisoning. It's a bit scary," he said.

Source: BBC News