Scores of internally displaced families living at Tach Asis IDP camp in Kuresoi South sub-county have been hit by an outbreak of a skin disease believed to have been caused by squalid conditions in the camp.
A spot check by the Informer today showed that children are the most hit by what locals believe to be scabies—there are about one thousand people who were evicted from Mau Forest a few years ago living at the camp.
“We’re calling on the government to intervene and get us a permanent home because this place is no longer habitable,” said Sarah Chepkirui, a mother of four children.
Today, Kuresoi South Jubilee parliamentary aspirant Dr Peter Ketyenya, who visited the camp, termed the conditions there as “deplorable” and called on the government and well wishers to intervene.
The youthful politician took more than 20 children below 10 years who are suffering from various health problems to Keringet Sub-County hospital where they were treated and discharged.
“What I have seen here is sad because these people do not even have pit latrines which expose them at risk of waterborne diseases like dysentery and cholera,” he stated.
Dr Ketyenya called for immediate resettlement of the IDPs saying everyone has a right to descent shelter and reasonable health conditions.
Scabies is an infectious skin disease caused by female mite Sarcoptes scabei. The mites burrow into human skin where they live and deposit eggs.