Month: November 2017

Nandi County Governor H.E Stephen Sang on Friday chaired a meeting of County Health Management Team during the release of Baseline survey report.
The release of the report is for the purpose of making decisions about health programmes and effecting changes in the health sector.
The baseline survey is needed to monitor local needs.
Present at the meeting were the Deputy County boss H.E Dr. Yulita Cheruiyot, CEC Health Mrs. Ruth Koech, Chief of Staff and Health Director Dr. Kangor Kibet Joseph.
The thematic areas covered during the survey were; Human Resource, Disease surveillance, Infrastructure and Stakeholder engagement.
#TransformingNandi

Courtesy of KenyaRe in collaboration with APDK the County Government of Nandi received four wheel chairs through the NIKO FITI CAMPAIGN.

Among the beneficiaries is one Kennedy Kipngetich of Kipsebwo, Aldai Sub-County, who showed his willingness and excited by the idea to join an integrated school that has an access to free environment for students with physical disability.

The County Executive Committee member in charge of Public administration, Decentralised units and E-government Teresa Morogo yesterday made a visit to the Kasabet sewer treatment site and and kapsabet town dump site to access the situation at these important amenities. The county government is in the process of acquiring a parcel of land to relocate the dump site to ensure proper disposal of solid waste is achieved.

Ongoing expansion and upgrade of feeder roads in some parts of Aldai sub county. H.E Governor Stephen K. Sang, through the Transport and Infrastructure ministry headed by Engineer Hillary Koech, has promised to closely monitor road works to ensure it is up to acceptable standards and that it is completed within the contractual timeframe.

North-Rift county officers trained on prevention of aflatoxin contamination

With the current maize harvesting activities and the ongoing heavy rainfall in the grain basket counties, the risk of aflatoxin contamination and exposure to the population is now real than ever before. Prevention measures must be taken now as a matter of priority.

Fifty three (53) officers from the Ministries of Health and Agriculture in Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties assembled in Kapsabet town for the training on prevention of Aflatoxin contamination and poisoning.

The training was conducted under the collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with the national and county governments through the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health.

The training targeted the North Rift counties that make up the country’s grain basket, with most of Kenya’s leading staple grain, maize, originating from the region. Harvesting and storing of maize produce is currently ongoing in these areas of Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia, at a time the region is experiencing a period of high rainfall.

One of the key component of the training is to equip the technical officers from both agriculture and public health departments with the relevant skills for identifying predisposing factors of aflatoxin contamination, signs of contamination, effects of human poisoning and appropriate prevention strategies for aflatoxin contamination. In addition, the officers were trained on the sampling and testing of aflatoxin contamination to enable the counties to conduct periodic monitoring, surveillance and detection. The training is very timely as farmers are harvesting and storing their produce during a wet season, which exposes the harvested contamination threat, if appropriate prevention measures are not applied.

The training was officially opened by the County Executive Committee (CEC) Member of Trans Nzoia county Hon. Isaaac Kogo, together with the Chief Officer of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Nandi county, Mr. Willie Too.

Aflatoxin contamination
Aflatoxins are a group of naturally occurring mycotoxins or toxic substances produced by a fungus. The toxins mainly accumulate on crops and grains in the tropical regions and most frequently occur when there are high moisture levels in the atmosphere. This often happens during harvesting and storage when the produce is stored before its dried to the right moisture level of 13%. According to available data, about 25% of the world’s cereals are contaminated by aflatoxins. Domestic animals that consume contaminated feeds produce products that are also contaminated with the toxins.
The most noticeable signs of infection on corn kernels is a grey-green or yellow-green mold, but not all moldy grains indicate contamination – even clean looking grains can be contaminated and its only by testing that one can determine that the produce is contaminated. Washing, cleaning or cooking does not eliminate aflatoxins. Contamination can have adverse health effects such on both human and animals especially in the case of acute poisoning that may cause instant fatality while the effects of chronic poisoning may not show its symptoms immediately.

The most noticeable signs of Aflatoxin poisoning include swollen stomach, hands and legs, fever and sometimes jaundice. Severe poisoning can cause liver cancer, stunted growth in children, reduced immunity and death especially when exposed to acute contamination. American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) has classified aflatoxins as Class 1 carcinogens.

In 2004, about one hundred and twenty-five cases of human death related to aflatoxin exposure were reported in Kitui, Makueni and Machakos. It should therefore be noted that aflatoxin contamination and poisoning can kill, but together we can reduce the risk. We should all dedicate our efforts to implement prevention strategies and technologies in order to sustainably bring this menace under control.

CEC Department of Agriculture and Co-operative Development Wilson Taiy on a tour of Lelchego milk cooling plant in Mosoriot Chesumei sub County. Lelchego is among the vibrant farmers’ co-operatives in the County. The County government of Nandi in partnership with other stakeholders have embarked on reviving collapsed farmer’s co-operatives and boosting existing ones to enhance milk production in the County. Last month County government of Nandi in collaboration with Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) unveiled two milk chilling plants in Olessos in Nandi Hills Sub county and Cheda farmers co-operative society in Chemundu in Chesumei Sub County and a milk processing equipment at Kaimosi Agricultural Training centre funded by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

H.E Deputy Governor Dr. Yulita Cheruiyot flagged off a team who will be representing Nandi County Kenya Inter-Counties Culture and Sports (KICOSCA) games to be held in Machakos County. The Deputy Governor took the opportunity to encourage and motivate the team, urging them to do their very best bearing in mind that Nandi is a Source of Champions. #TransformingNandi

H. E Deputy Governor Dr. Yulita Cheruiyot today chaired a consultative meeting with the Secretariat tasked with developing the second generation County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP . This is a mandatory document under section 104,105 and 108 of the County Government Act and integrates aspects including; economic, physical, social, environmental and special planning. The document also seeks to integrate efforts of various stakeholders in identifying and prioritizing development programs to be undertaken within the five-year period.​
#TransformingNandi

CECs Teresa Morogo (Administration, Decentralised units and E-Government),Wilson Kibor Taiy (Agriculture) and Stanley Baliach (Education) held a consultative meeting with JKUAT team led by the Director Nakuru Campus Juma Wagoki.They discussed partnerships in ICT and Agriculture. #TransformingNandi