Machakos County statement on Kanaani Primary School food poisoning incident

Machakos County Governor Wavinya Ndeti has issued a statement regarding a case where pupils of Kanaani Primary School in Athi River Sub-County suffered poisoning after eating wild fruits. Below is the statement.

Kanaani Primary School food poisoning incident

I wish to inform Machakos County residents and the public in general that the unfortunate incident where pupils of Kanaani Integrated Primary School in Athi River Sub-County suffered poisoning after ingesting wild fruits has been successfully contained.

Some 59 pupils of ages ranging between six and nine years were yesterday taken to Athi River Level 4 Hospital after experiencing severe abdominal pains and vomiting. The good news is that medics at the facility managed to deal with all cases.

51 pupils were treated and discharged while 8 others were retained at the hospital for overnight observation and discharged this morning after being stabilized. One pupil is still under observation at the facility but in a stable condition.

In the meantime, we have dispatched samples of the wild fruits for analysis at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).

I congratulate the Department of Health and Emergency Services and other State agencies for the swift and coordinated action in responding to and containing the incident.