From Marc Nkwame in Arusha
During her recent trip to Tanzania, Ms Cecilia Mwangi arrived in Arusha still wearing the ‘Miss World Kenya 2005’ beauty title but just for the mission she had in hand.
The 26-year-old Kenyan queen of the catwalk was also wearing a pair of high-heeled shoes which was just about to give her a major afternoon headache.This is because she suddenly got compelled to trek some three kilometers up a steep hill, while heading to the Ilkisongo Village situated in the remote Kioga location of Ilkiding’a Ward in the rain drenched Arusha rural district.
The time was 2.30 pm.Now the rains had apparently rendered the narrow, muddy road which leads to the village, impassable, causing the two vans that Ms Mwangi and her entourage was traveling in, to call it quits after being stuck in the soggy black cotton soil mixed with clay, cattle dung and rain water.
The Volkswagen Microbus had its real axle crushed onto a rock while the Toyota Hiace van laid sideways, in fact were it not for the giant tree on the side of the road, the vehicle would have probably overturned after its left wheels slipped into a deep gorge.The ‘accident’ occurred more than 20 kilometers from Arusha town, which meant there was no way back.
The team had to get out and head for the village via a ‘shortcut’ route as directed by the locals but the alleged ‘shortcut’ path turned out to be a long trek up an inclination so steep that Miss Kenya was ready to give up the beauty title for a lift. She would have happily given away the designer shoes as well.Panting and sweating the team, including a Kenyan Television Crew and some print media personalities, finally arrived at the village ready for the mission which brought them to Tanzania in the first place.
So, what was that? Well the mission was all about ‘Jiggers!’“After getting education and jobs in town many people in East Africa seem to have forgotten about jiggers, but the problem continues to wreak havoc on rural people’s feet and psychology,” explains Miss Kenya who is now a special envoy in the regional war against jiggers’ infections.The jigger crusade was founded by Mr Stanley Kamau who advocates the campaign through his humanitarian Ahadi trust whose mission is to ‘eradicate’ jiggers throughout East Africa the trust has chosen Miss Kenya 2005 to front the cause.
The efforts include treating victims, spraying insecticides to jigger breeding locations and helping children who suffered the infections to resume school attendance.
But why did they choose Ilkisongo village to launch their anti-jigger mission in Tanzania? “Being our first time in the country we had to start somewhere and a local church here invited us, we are ready to receive invitations from anywhere now,” explained Mr Kamau.
According to Mr Kamau no country in East Africa has any policy on jiggers; it is a problem that the leaders, the community and even the victims themselves are ashamed to talk about.
“And it is taking drastic toll on our communities, jiggers are painful, they disfigure feet and legs, cause trauma and mental instability among victims who also have to live with social stigma,” he explained.
Ms Cecilia Mwangi added that many infected children are dropping out of school fearing ridicule from their peers, thus missing education while many farms were overgrown with shrubs because owners no longer could work or walk due to pain and wounds caused by the fleas.According to Miss Kenya jiggers can become major nightmare for young ladies who may as well forget about getting married … or putting on high heeled shoes like hers let alone dreaming for a night of cat-walking on stage.
At Ilkisongo village some 200 people suffering from jiggers had registered for treatment but only half of the number turned up, the area chairman Mr George Loyi explained that hundreds more suffered in silence but poverty among residents made the situation worse.The village with a population of 3000 has close to 900 households. The area has lush-green environment not the dusty grounds that are usually associated with jigger breeding.
“People here live with their poultry in the house; these generate fleas that later cause jiggers,” explained Mrs Evelyne Lukumay a resident of the village who adds that the only treatment used is by ‘digging out’ the fleas from the flesh using needles.“Very dangerous,” explains Miss Kenya, “because a single needle or pin can circulate among five or ten households, thus making all people using it susceptible to other infections such as HIV-Aids,” she said.For more than an hour Miss Kenya treated the 100 victims who turned up at the open TAG church grounds by soaking their feet in water mixed with the inorganic chemical compound known as ‘potassium permanganate.
’ She had initially armed herself with basins, soap and the chemicals.“Soaking the feet in the solution for two consecutive days is enough to kill the jiggers and restore the feet to healthy conditions,” she said and when she left the area the victims were left with the cleaning solutions.A random research conducted by ‘Ahadi Trust’ indicates that at least 4 percent of the 120 million population of East Africa suffer from jiggers. That should translate to around five million victims spread around the five countries.
Kenya itself has about two million jiggered feet.And women suffered most; being the natural health caretakers in Africa, they are forced to deal with own problems, those of their families and sometimes even neighbors and distant relatives.With the first mission accomplished, Miss Kenya and entourage had to deal with another problem; how exactly was the team going to get back to Arusha Town, with the dusk settling and both vehicles stalled on a remote path?Mh! Its a tough life, being a Miss Kenya on a maiden mission to Tanzania.
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