Former Bomet County Governor Joyce Laboso who died of Cancer in July 2019
A Bomet resident is concerned over the rise of cancer, asthma, and other allergies in his locality of Konoin, Bomet County.
“Hello Cyprian, there is an alarming rise in cancer and asthma cases in Bomet especially Konoin, the government is yet to address it,” he wrote.
The resident believes that the rise in the diseases is closely tied with Tea estates.
“Tea estates here dump chemicals and fertilizers into rivers as they spray their plantations using aircraft. The gov needs to take responsibility,” he added.
He wrote the following thread on Twitter about 13 hours ago. CANCER AND ASTHMA IN BOMET, a short thread; People are really dying man. Today I was in a fundraising for my relative who has throat cancer. The past 2 months we have lost quite a number of people to the same disease, it’s becoming scary.
I come from Konoin to be specific. We grow tea here and we are surrounded by big tea estates. Some years back, people complained that their water sources (rivers) were being contaminated by fertilizers and other chemicals that drain to the rivers after application.
Sometimes they directly go to rivers since they aerially apply using aircrafts.
Are these fertilizers cancerous?
I don’t know too but what am sure of is that there is a rapid increase in CANCER and ASTHMA cases over the years and no one seems to care.
In my village there is roughly 10 people who are aged 18 and above that are suffering from asthma compared to a population of around 200 adults. Cancer is there too. People are treating it as a norm but it’s not.
Healthcare is expensive people have to rely on fundraisings, but it’s not sustainable.
Poverty is knocking on everyone’s door. People are now going house to house begging for anything they can get so as to pay hospital bills; let alone the expensive school fees they cannot afford. People used to have money since tea prices were good some few years ago.
Thanks to some tea cartels the prices have gone down which cannot sustain people’s needs.
Our leaders have really failed us; they are nowhere to be seen during these fundraisings but I bet they are about to start coming since elections is looming.
Anyway, I just need your help to create awareness on the growing number of cancer and asthma cases in Bomet particularly Konoin.
A research is needed to ascertain the main cause of this since cases are rising at an alarming rate.
I don’t know if in your areas it’s the same but it doesn’t sound right guys. Help me create awareness guys. The govt has got to do something about it. If you can offer any help, please do.
Are allergies normal these days? imagine almost everyone I know has some underlying allergic condition, me included, my friends my family, I mean. I have had this discussion with a few people and it doesn’t add up.