By John Majau
Residents of Rukaani village in Tharaka Nithi County are still reeling in shock after two school children died and nineteen others hospitalized at Marimanti Level Four Hospital after allegedly consuming poisonous honey.
A boy aged thirteen and a six-year old girl both succumbed to the poison with one dying before reaching hospital while the other passed on while undergoing treatment.
Out of the the nineteen victims who were hospitalized, eighteen of them were school children while one was an adult.
Marimanti Hospital Nursing Manager Stephen Kamanja confirmed the two deaths and said the other patients were in a stable condition while one had been discharged.
“One child died while being rushed to hospital and the body is in the mortuary and the other succumbed while receiving treatment,” Mr Kamanja said.
Musa Kirugi, a logger who was one of the victims, said the children became weak and started vomiting, having diarrhea and complaining of stomach pains about six hours after eating the honey on Thursday morning.
“Most of the people who consumed the honey were children because those who harvested it from the tree went around sharing it,” said Kirugi.
Kirugi, the owner of the tree fell victim after tasting the honey but immediately rushed to buy milk to quieten the effects.
“I had a taste of the honey but immediately went and bought milk after I started feeling uncomfortable in my stomach,” he said.
He said the honey known as Nchuura in the Kitharaka dialect (made by smaller bees and believed to be medicinal when eaten raw) was discovered by loggers who had cut the tree for timber.
Tharaka North sub-county Police Commander Kimanzi Mwangangi said they were investigating the incident and that samples of the honey had been taken for tests.
He said most of the victims were members of the same extended family.
In May, two people from Kiaruni village in Tharaka South died and eight others were treated at Marimanti Sub-County Hospital after reportedly consuming poisonous wild honey.
In July last year, three people in Muguruka village, Tharaka South, died and four others were treated at the same hospital after reportedly consuming a brew made from honey.
This came a day after a seven-year-old boy in Gichiini village in Tharaka North died and four others were successfully treated at a hospital in Mukothima after eating raw honey.
In June last year, two family members in Riamikui village in Tharaka North died and another was successfully treated at Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital after reportedly consuming poisonous honey.
All these deaths were reported in the Tharaka community whose members practice traditional bee farming mainly to produce honey for domestic consumption, sell it at local markets and prepare traditional alcohol known as uki.
