Alarm raised over high rate of malnutrition

Chairman, Kenya Scale Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance Titus Mung’ou, speaks to the media at an Embu hotel yesterday. Despite being agriculturally productive, Embu County suffers from high rates of malnutrition. BY JOSEPH MUCHIRI

Nutritionists have expressed concern over the high rate of malnutrition in the county.

They said the crisis was manifested through the high number of children below five years who were underweight, showed stunted growth and had high infant mortality.

They observed that stunting among children in the lower parts of the county stood at 40.9 per cent and 23 in the northern region.

County nutritionists and officials of Grace Alliance, a non-government organisation involved in fighting malnutrition in the country, said the figure was alarming as the region was now in the same league as arid and semi-arid areas.

They said stunted growth leads to schooling challenges, diminished intellectual ability, low birth weight and reduced earnings.

Embu County Nutrition Co-ordinator Kelvin Muli attributed widespread malnutrition in the area to poverty, ignorance and the aflatoxins menace.

Speaking at a workshop on nutrition in Embu town, Mr Muli said the Kenya Medical Research Institute was conducting a study to establish the cause of poor nutrition in the agriculturally-endowed county.

STAFFING CRISIS

"Malnutrition has been here for a long time and needs urgent attention," said Muli, adding that the county had only 28 nutritionists serving a population of over 500,000 people.

This, he said, had impeded efforts to sensitise women on the need for exclusive breastfeeding of babies for the first six months and other nutrition matters.

Muli expressed concern that no funds were set aside for nutrition programmes in the county's Sh3.2 billion 2014-2015 budget in which health got Sh1.15 billion.

Participants suggested counties should allocate funds for nutrition programmes.

Kenya Scale Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance Chairman Titus Mung'ou said Kenya committed to scale up nutrition in 2012, but still over 100,000 children were dying before their fifth birthday, with malnutrition accounting for half of the deaths.

He said Kenya needed to inject Sh70 billion into nutrition-related programmes annually and urged counties to streamline their policies and laws to reflect the nutritional needs of their areas.

Mr Mung'ou further called on organisations to create baby-friendly environments where women could breastfeed their children at work.

"We also urge the President, governors, their wives, the media and civil society organisations to be champions of nutrition," he said.