Call to help Kitui scholars facing blindness

By PAUL MUTUA

Kitui, Kenya: A group of primary, secondary and university’s scholars in Kitui county face imminent blindness from a preventable eye condition.

The students suffer from keratoconus, an eye condition where the cornea loses it natural shape and looks more like a cone.

The co-ordinator of the Kitui Integrated Programme for the Physically Impaired, Kiema Muthoka, said other children suffer from melanoma which is a skin cancer caused by strong sunlight.

“These students live in agony and desperation waiting for assistance and support to get specialised treatment,” Muthoka said.

Muthoka said the programme caters for visually impaired children drawn from the three Ukambani counties: Kitui, Machakos and Makueni.

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DEPLORABLE STATE

“The plight of these children with health complications and who experience a myriad other problems stemming from lack of viable funding is simply deplorable,” he said.

One of the pupils, Peter Nzau, a pupil at Kitui Muslim Primary School, suffers from melanoma while three others including a girl in nursery school require corneal grafts. Muthoka said the children who go to Kitui Central and Muslim primary schools, while others are in secondary schools and universities lack support from the Government and well-wishers.

The Kitui institution has 90 children in primary school, 18 in secondary school and five in university.

The co-ordinator urged well-wishers to donate funds for these young people who require urgent treatment.