Girl dies, three others hospitalised after eating poisonous cassava

A seven-year-old girl from Makongeni village in Nambale, Busia County, has died and her three siblings were hospitalised after consuming poisonous cassava.

The three are being treated at Busia County Referral Hospital.

Their grandmother Paselisa Auma said the children, aged nine, seven, six and five, developed complications after eating the cassava.

The seven-year-old died while undergoing treatment at Nambale Sub-County hospital.

“Yesterday, I harvested some cassava, prepared it and left it to dry, but my grandchildren ate them raw after I left to attend to other errands,” Mrs Auma said.

When she returned and prepared supper, she noticed that one of the children did not eat well and was drowsy before she started vomiting uncontrollably.

Mrs Auma assumed the condition was a normal illness and that it would stop. The girl was taken to hospital but died while being treated.

A short time later, the other two also started showing similar symptoms.

“I warmed some water, mixed it with salt and gave it to them, but by 10pm the situation worsened, prompting me to rush them to Nambale Sub-County Hospital, where one girl lost her life,” she said.

Mr Francis Masinde Wekesa, the father of the four children, said he was told about the incident by his eldest son. He rushed to the hospital and found out one girl had died while the other three children were in stable condition.

Mr Gerald Okodoi, a neighbour who responded to Mrs Auma’s distress call, found two children vomiting while the other two were unconscious.

He took them to the Nambale hospital on a motorbike.

“We took the two who were unconscious to the hospital first before coming for the other two, but, unfortunately, one girl died while undergoing treatment and the other children were referred to Busia County Referral Hospital,” he said.  

The three were being treated for cassava poisoning but were in stable condition, said Mr Dickens Etyang, a nurse at the hospital.

“We have three children who were brought here yesterday from Nambale Sub-County Hospital with a poisoning problem,” he said.

“They were four but one succumbed while in Nambale. We managed to administer medicine to the three we have to reduce the level of poison and they are now stable and they will be discharged soon.”