Hunger is real, three children fainted while in school due to hunger says chief

The chief for Kimu location in Kyuso district in Kitui County, John Muthengi, on Monday confirmed that three pupils in a local Kalima Mundu Primary school fainted last week due to fangs of hunger.  

While appealing for food support to the hunger-stricken pupils at the school, the Kyuso sub-County education director Stephen Mulandi in a letter to the Principal of Kyuso Secondary School last week stressed the need for urgent food support as some learners had fainted due to hunger.               

Chief Muthengi spoke to Mwingi Times at Kalima Mundu Primary school on Monday during the delivery of a donation of 15 bags of maize and 5 bags of maize by a well-wisher Rev Euticauls Wambua, of the Baptist Chapel in Nairobi. 

Media reports            

The benefactor said the food aid was worth Sh. 65,000. He said he had learned of the plight of the hunger-stricken school children through media reports. He said he was and was so touched by news that children had fainted in the school for lack of food and thus decided to support.              

Chief Muthengi said the hunger situation was so bad that many were the times the families where the school children belonged skipped meals for lack of food at home.

A parent, Muthakye Mutisya, told the Mwingi Times that her Grade Five daughter was among the learners who fainted due to hunger during a school assembly last week.  She said there was no food at her home and the family was surviving on support from meek neighbours.         

"My daughter became weak and fainted in school because she had eaten very little food the previous evening. In fact, I cooked and shared a 1/4 kilogramme of Ndengu among my six children that was hardly enough for them. I did not have anything else to feed them with," said Ms Mutisya.    

Another parent Rhoda Mueni Mwaniki said due to rain failure in the past two consecutive rainy seasons most families in the area had expended their food reserves and were hungry.                                

 "At home we hardly have any food to feed the children. Some time we have only one meal in a day but in worse times our families can go for up to two days without food. The situation is dire," said Ms Mwaniki as she called for assistance.

She said due to hunger learners did not concentrate in class and posted poor results from tests given to them by teachers.                        

Teachers at the school who received the food donation from Rev. Wambua were unwilling to discuss the matter with the media. They said their seniors had cautioned them against talking to the press.

A parent Maluki Nduu said that since the first appeal for food for the children was sent out by the Kyuso education boss, the school had by Monday received a donation of 19 bags of maize and five bags of beans.

By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT, Edited by MUSYOKA NGUI