A family in Kilifi county, which lost five children—four brothers and a cousin—after they ate poisonous mushrooms on July 21, is appealing for help.
They are urging well-wishers to come to their aid to help sort out hospital bills and bury their loved ones.
The children—Furaha Jumaa (14), Mariam Jumaa (9), Sharifu Jumaa (7), Mustafa Jumaa (6), and their cousin Iddi Charo (9)—died on various dates between July 22 and July 25, after being taken ill following the mushroom meal which was consumed by 14 people.
One died on the way to Kilifi county hospital from Bamba subcounty hospital where three had been taken for medication.
The child had been resuscitated once during the journey after experiencing shortness of breath, according to Maitha Kahindi, a relative who spoke to the Star on Tuesday.
The other two were referred to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital where they succumbed on different days.
The deceased children all went to school at Muungano Primary, whose deputy head teacher Margaret Kalume could not hold back tears as she talked to the Star on Tuesday.
The body of one of the children, Mustafa, is at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital while the other four are at the Kilifi county hospital.
Kahindi on Tuesday told the Star the family is unable to pay the hospital bills because of poverty.
“We have a bill of at least Sh55,000 at the Coast General. The family has failed to raise this amount. We call on well-wishers to help us,” Kahindi said.
He said this is in addition to the piling bill for the other members of the family who are still being treated at the Kilifi county hospital and the other bodies which are still at the Kilifi hospital’s morgue.
He said they need at least Sh300,000 to clear all the hospital bills and plan the burial of all the five children.
Kahindi said their home area, Katendewa B village in Mirihini, Bamba division in Ganze, received rains late and although people planted maize, they did not produce any maize.
This exacerbated the perennial hunger problem in the area.
“This area does not have food. That is why the children, who were hungry, had to go look for mushrooms to eat,” he said.
Kahindi said the mother of the four brothers had on July 20 picked edible mushrooms from the nearby forest, cooked them and they ate as a family.
“So the next day, on Friday, the parents had gone to receive a body for burial and left the children at home. The children then copied the mother and went to pick mushrooms from the same forest, which they cooked.”
There are two varieties of mushrooms in the forest, one is edible and the other is not as it is poisonous.
So, the children picked the poisonous ones because, according to area residents, the poisonous ones are identical to the edible ones when they are not mature.
“It is hard to tell the difference until they mature. When mature, the edible ones have a smooth head while the poisonous ones have black dots on the umbrella or the head,” a resident told the Star.
Head teacher Kalume called on both the National and the Kilifi county governments to address the hunger issue in Bamba and Ganze subcounty in general.
She said the lack of food and water affects learning at the school.
“Our school has 336 learners. I have been at the school for four years now. These children would not have died if they had food to eat. They would not have gone into the forest to look for mushrooms,” Kalume said.
She said Muungano primary does not get government food like other public schools.
“Children there can go for three or four days without a meal. Personally, I have been forced to line-up in long queues so that I can get at least a bag or two of maize,” she said.
A neighbouring shopkeeper, LG Duwali, has been of immense help to the school, often donating some bundles of maize flour to the school on Kalume’s request.
Kalume said she is forced to sometimes get maize flour from her own house to try and prepare some porridge for her learners in school.
“I prepare the porridge at 10am so that the learners can at least be attentive to the teacher. Because, really, can a child who has not eaten for three days be able to keenly listen to the teacher and pass exams?”
Muungano Primary School is surrounded by neighbouring schools including Katendewa, Mirihini, Jila, and Bandari primary schools, but these receive food aid at least.
“We at Muungano gave been forgotten. We have seen learners transfer to these other schools because they get food there,” Kalume said.
She said when it was raining, most of the people in the area did not have money to buy the seedlings to plant.
By the time they got, the rains had stopped or subsided, which led to the poor yields.
Haki Yetu called on the Education ministry to help Muungano primary and other schools in Ganze subcounty get food.