Over 100 residents in Igembe South and Central sub-counties in Meru were rushed to hospital on Friday, September 22, after feasting on a dead camel.
The Malaene village residents were reported to have found the carcass in a nearby forest a day before, dragged it to the village and shared the meat.
A large number of the victims were treated and discharged on the same day and Saturday morning, September 24.
However, seven of them, including six children remained admitted at Nyambene Level 4 Hospital with symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting. Others complained of headaches and stomachaches.
“Several people were brought in for admission after eating a camel that had not been tested and approved by a doctor. By bad luck, they suffered from food poisoning,” Githu Wachira a doctor at the hospital stated.
According to hospital administrators, most of the patients who were women and children lamented that they resorted to eating the said meat to satisfy their hunger.
A section of the victims said that the feast happened after some villagers herding cattle slaughtered two dead animals and shared the meat with other villagers.
"My children and I had not eaten for two days because of the acute drought we are experiencing. When we were told there was a dead camel in the bush, we happily rushed to get a share of the meat without thinking twice,” Damaris Kinya, one of the affected villagers, recalled.
Others attributed the hunger to severe drought being experienced in the region and the Horn of Africa.
“We are hungry. We have not received rain in the last three years,” one of the patients lamented.
No deaths were reported from the incident. Dr Wachira, however, stated that they were monitoring patients who were in critical conditions. He urged the residents to exercise caution and consume meat purchased from certified butcheries.
The drought in the Horn of Africa and adjacent areas dominated the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held in New York in September 2022.
President William Ruto, while addressing the UN, urged world leaders to collaborate in tackling climate change, combating hunger and reducing the cost of living. He urged investors to partner with the nation to build fertilizer production companies, which he argued, would permanently solve the hunger crisis as farmers would embrace agriculture.
The US government, a few days later, donated Ksh23 billion (USD 194.5 million) to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help Kenyans affected by severe drought and food shortage.
