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Health officials in Narok County have revealed that approximately 53 percent of the total population living in rural areas defecate in bushes.
Public health officials have exuded confidence that the toilet coverage in the county has improved from 38 percent last year to 47 percent this year.
According to the County Public Health Officer Mr. Daniel Sironka, the improvement in toilet coverage was triggered by aggressive campaigns held by his department in collaboration with the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) based in the county.
The health official who spoke at Nkaretta area during the World Toilet Day said 10 villages in the county are already certified open defecation free according to the health standards.
"The Department of Health came up with Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Campaign to increase the latrine coverage where 1356 villages were involved. Ten villages have so far been certified open defecation free while 27 are in the process of being certified," he said.
Sironka added that construction of a latrine using locally available materials can stop contamination of food and water.
Narok Governor Samuel Tunai's wife, Sarah has asked the public health department to ensure all business premises in the county have a clean toilet and that they do not charge their customers for using the toilets.
"All supermarkets, banks, shops and market should have clean toilets that can be accessible for their customers, otherwise the premises should not be allowed to operate," she said.
Mrs. Tunai commended the Public Health Department for the increase in toilet coverage saying she is optimistic that by the year 2020, the coverage will move from 47 percent to over 80 percent.
Dr. John Sironka who is in charge of eye-care at Narok County hospital and the secretary to the county taskforce on trachoma attributed the increase of Trachoma to poor sanitation and lack of toilets in the most affected areas.
He said most affected areas are Osupuko, Loita, Mara and other parts of Ololulunga adding that the disease is common with the pastoralistss because of their nature of living with livestock and at some point share the same shelter with calves and lambs.
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