Nakuru County health department will start a school to school campaign to inspect for bedbugs, Chief Public Health officer Samuel Kingori has said.
Kingori said they had already issued warnings to boarding schools in the county seeking to have them fumigated for the insects.
Speaking to the press in his office on Wednesday, the health officer said schools had sufficient time to address the issue during the long holidays.
“We want to ensure that our pupils in boarding schools do not fall victims of such bugs which might end in an outbreak like last year,” he added.
Kingori said they were also keenly monitoring the hygiene of various schools in the county.
“We want to ensure that the children are in an friendly environment and we would like to especially caution schools that do not take their health seriously that we will seek their closure,” said Kingori.
He pointed out that they were also keen on preventing cholera outbreaks this year.
“Schools are our first priority and if we can maintain hygiene in them, we can be able to spread them across the county,” he added.
According to Kingori, the county lost about Sh600 million from treating infections that could be prevented through good hygiene.
Last year, the county government used Sh2 million to rid the bedbugs following an outbreak in the area.