Schools disrupted as deadly fever hits incomes

The closure of livestock markets in Kenya's Northeastern Province after an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) has hit livelihoods and the economy, which is almost entirely dependent on livestock, local residents said.

Most affected, they added, were secondary schools because many parents had found it hard to raise fees for their children to resume classes this week.

Mohamed Sheikh Dahir, a herder and father of two secondary school students in the neighbouring Ijara district, said only one had been able to return to school with the help of a relative and a local trader.

"One of my children is still at home. If the market is not opened he will not go back to school," he said.

The head teacher of Modogashe Secondary School in the provincial capital of Garissa, Abdullahi Ibrahim, said more than 100 parents had asked him to allow their children to remain in school until they were able to raise the fees.

"We sympathise with them and acknowledge that there is a problem, but it is not possible to help them all," said Ibrahim.

Garissa District Commissioner, Joseph Imbwaga, said the issue had been brought to the attention of the district disaster management committee, but could not immediately say what was being done about it.

"The situation is very serious. I am embarrassed that I cannot even provide food for my family. The closure of the slaughterhouse has affected many people," said Ahmed Omar, who previously worked at the abattoir in Garissa.

"The government should intervene, give us food and help us pay school fees for our children," he added.

The Kenyan government introduced free primary-school education in 2003, but parents still have to bear the financial burden of secondary school.

"We need relief food just like the drought and flood victims. We are desperate," said Halima Ahmed, a single mother of five, who used to eke out a living selling tea at the local livestock market.

The government imposed a ban on the sale and slaughter of livestock when RVF broke out in the province early in December. Last week, reports indicated the disease may have spread to neighbouring Somalia.

A vaccination campaign intended to innoculate more than two million cattle, goats, sheep and camels in the affected areas over the next three weeks began on Tuesday.

The director of veterinary services, Joseph Musaa, said it would take more than a month to determine the safety of animal products in the area even when the disease is brought under control.

The vaccination exercise involves 400 personnel, led by 37 veterinary surgeons. Religious and community leaders were helping to raise awareness among the nomadic communities to ensure the vaccination exercise was successful.

RVF has claimed the lives of an estimated 80 people in the region since it was first reported, according to local health officials. Nearly 500 livestock had also died from the disease.

The RVF virus is spread to humans from livestock via the aedes mosquito, which breeds rapidly during floods. The Northeastern Province, inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, was hit by devastating floods over the last three months of 2006.

The disease can be transmitted by mosquitoes or through contact with infected animal material such as blood or other body fluids or organs. Consumption of milk, a staple for many pastoralists, is also a possible risk. Symptoms in humans include bleeding through the nose and mouth, and liver failure.

Northeastern Province was previously hit by an outbreak of RVF in 1997 following heavy flooding caused by the El Niño weather pattern.

The disease was first identified in Kenya in 1931. A first sign of it is spontaneous abortions in sheep, goats and cattle.

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