My community is not a gated one though we all have gates to our homes.
A majority of us have called this place home since we were foetuses in our mothers’ bellies.
We are your common mwananchi hustling hard to make ends meet. We keep the harambee spirit alive.
We laugh and make merry with those in celebration and cry with those mourning. Today, we do the latter.
Yet another member has been stolen from us. Not by al Shabab, but by an even bigger threat. Cancer!
He was a young boy of barely 10 years. He is second to fall to this silent killer in a span of less than an year.
The other was an elderly woman in her 70’s. May God rest both their souls in eternal peace.
Recent statistics have shown that cancer is the Number 3 killer in Kenya.
It evens claims more lives than the dreaded HIV and like it it doesn’t discriminate.
It is killing the haves and the have nots, the young and the old.
In most cases, including the ones in my community, the patients don’t even realise they have the disease till it is beyond treatment.
What’s more, treating cancer is costly and many of the victims can’t afford to pay for it.
Before she died, the elderly lady had spent all her savings towards her treatment.
It is high time we begun a more vigilant ‘maliza cancer campaign’ in Nakuru.
Our county government should be the fast in the nation to set up a cancer hospital equipped with all the modern machines and doctors to screen for and treat cancer.
It should also be one that is affordable to the grassroots mwananchi.
A few years back we fought HIV/Aids and we managed to beat it. I t is time we now fought this new threat.
Pamoja Tuangamize Cancer!