An eight year old boy died on Monday evening after he together with seven other family members ate poisonous cassava alleged to have been harvested from a neighbor’s farm.
According to the boy’s mother Rose Koi she had gone to work on Monday morning together with her husband and when she reported home that evening she found her 80 year old grandmother, four sons and three daughters writhing in pain at their Madamani village in Ganze District in Kilifi.
She called her husband and neighbors who rushed the eight victims to Vitengeni health center. Their condition however worsened and they were rushed to Kilifi District hospital where one of the boys was declared dead on arrival.
Abdallah Changwa succumbed to the poisoning and medics claim that three more family members are in critical condition though on treatment. The rest are still being observed at the hospital though out of danger.
The elderly woman told the media that her grandchildren had harvested the cassava from a neighboring farm and they prepared it for lunch. After eating the cassava they all started showing signs of severe stomach pains.
