There are fears of cholera outbreak in Kirembe village in the outskirts of Kisumu city with one person dead and scores others admitted in hospital.
A local resident, Nicholas Reru said for the past one week locals have been diarrhearing and vomiting.
Reru said over 20 people including children and adults are receiving treatment at the Kisumu district hospital.
He said local health workers have revealed that the symptoms are similar to those of cholera but were under instructions from the county government not to divulge that information.
Speaking to the press in Kisumu on Wednesday, Reru said the local dispensaries have inadequate medicine and could not cope with the magnitude number of people seeking treatment as a result of the disease.
“We need immediate help because the rate at which this disease is spreading is alarming. The county health officers still want us to contribute money for a tent and toilets to be able to treat those affected here, that is not our function,” he said.
A civil society group Transform Empowerment for Action Initiative is now calling upon for response from the county government since health is a devolve function.
The initiative executive director Collins Owuor said Kisumu residents must be told the kind of ailment in the area.
Owuor said the slow response will lead to the entire village being infected with the disease.
However the County Executive member for health, Dr Elizabeth Ogaja says preliminary investigations points to consumption of contaminated water.
Ogaja said the locals are accessing water which is not treated from a nearby stream that originates in the wetland in the area.
She announced that samples from the patients have been sent to the labs to identify the causative organism of the infection.