Why school food poisoning outbreaks keep happening in Kenya

The union is now calling for Public Health Officers to be formally integrated into the Kenya School Health Policy as School Health Officers or Public Health Officer Community Health Extension Workers, saying their expertise should form part of the country's broader Bora Afya primary healthcare reforms.

Nearly two decades earlier, one of the country's worst public health emergencies struck eastern Kenya when contaminated maize containing aflatoxins caused 317 illnesses and claimed 125 lives, many of them school-going children." According to Ashira, Public Health Officers are legally mandated to inspect institutional kitchens, monitor food handling practices, test drinking water, oversee sanitation standards, manage waste disposal systems and conduct disease surveillance in schools.