Browsing by Author "Akunga, Daniel"

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    Assessement of Diarrhoeal Disease Attributable to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene among under Five in Kasarani, Nairobi County
    (2014-03-05) Kimani, Humprey Mbuti; Akunga, Daniel; Anyango, S. O.
    Cause of diarrhea is known to have many risk factors. They include unsafe water, lack of water leading to low personal and domestic hygiene, poor water infrastructural and management systems. Contamination of drinking water is known to be a problem in many developing countries. This is even of more concern in high residential low income areas. Nairobi City is not an exception hence this study was conducted in Kasarani to assess diarrhea disease attributed to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) among under-fives. The study aimed at determining the quality of water the households were consuming. The main objective of this study was to establish the association between diarrhea among the under-five and water, sanitation and hygiene. To achieve this goal, the study area was categorized in four study environs namely low density high income (LDHI), medium density middle income (MDMI), high density low income (HDLI and informal settlement low income (ISLI). The study adopted a crosssectional study design. The study used both structured questionnaire and hygiene observational checklist as data collection instruments. To ascertain disease trends among the under fives, the study reviewed disease records from licensed health facilities. Derived values of tables, percentages, graphs and ratios were adopted for data presentation. To determine association and significant differences between variables, data were subjected to inferential statistics and Chi-square tests respectively. For comparisons of quantitative variables, ANOVA test was used. The findings of this study indicated that Nairobi water and sewerage company ( NWSCO) was the main source of water supply in the study environs (100%). Under five children from household consuming less than 60.75litres a day and who were predominantly from (ISLI) were at a higher risk of diarrhoea compared to those who consumed more than 60.75 litres a day (p<0.001). Households experiencing water shortages in frequencies of less than three days were found to carry a higher risk for childhood diarrhoea (p< 0.001). This study determined that water consumed in Kasarani was a risk for childhood diarrhoea (p=0.019) with tap water showing a significantly higher contamination 13.7% than household water container 7.2% for T. Coli bacteria. The microbial results observed attributed contamination to the distribution network or household and personal hygiene among the MDMI, HDLI and ISLI residential environs. Overall, the results indicated that the amount of water a household consumed per day was an important risk factor for childhood diarrhea in the study environs (p= 0.00 1). The study observed that Age of a child (p=0.046), Water treatment method (p=0.002), method of storage of solid waste p
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    Assessment of Nutrition Status and Dietary Diversity among Children 6-59 Months in Mathare Valley, Nairobi County, Kenya
    (2014-02-19) Mutakaa, Lisbeth Kageni; Akunga, Daniel; Njogu, Eunice
    Under nutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all deaths in children aged less than five years worldwide. There are 143 million children under five who are underweight in the developing world. In Kenya, severe acute malnutrition is responsible for 82,000 deaths annually with a significant percentage being from urban slums. The purpose of this study was to assess nutritional status children aged 6-59 months in Mathare valley, a low income settlement in Nairobi. A cross-sectional study design was used. Data was collected using structured and non structured questionnaires. A total of 246 children aged 6-59 months were taken the anthropometric measurements to determine their nutritional status and their caregivers interviewed. Two focus group discussions and 6 Key informant interviews were conducted. The dependent variable was nutritional status of children below five years and independent variables included socioeconomic attributes, dietary intake, and dietary diversity. Descriptive analysis was done using IBM SPSS software version 19 and anthropometry analysis by ENA for SMART. Severe malnutrition measured by MUAC was observed in 6.5% of the children. Severe stunting, wasting and underweight measured using HAZ, WHZ and WAZ.was observed in 5.7%, 4.1% and 4.5% respectively. Among the 246 children, 39.0 had fallen ill within the previous two weeks and several had fallen ill more than once within the same period. The major symptoms included diarrhea, cough and vomiting by 50%, 47.9% and 40.6% respectively. Dietary score for 104(42.1%) households was low. There is need to regularly monitor nutrition status of children below five years and to have up to date data for informed decision making.
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    Post Covid-19 Situational Analysis of Water Sanitation and Hygiene in Public Primary Schools in Kiambu County, Kenya
    (International Academic Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing (IAJHMN), 2025-06) Wanjiku, Stanley Njau; Akunga, Daniel; Kingori, Isabella
    Increased enrolment of children in public schools since the inception of free primary education in Kenya has been attributed to the progressive pressure on the existing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools. The main objective of this study was to assess the status of WASH services in Kikuyu sub-county primary schools post Coronavirus Disease (COVID19) outbreak. The study applied a crosssectional study design to collect data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The target respondents were students in grades 5 through 8 and the head teachers. At the same time, the key informants were the environment teachers and the subcounty director of education. The study involved all thirty- two (32) public primary schools in Kikuyu Sub-County where 393 respondents were selected through a multistage stratified sampling technique involving both boys and girls from different schools in the sub-county and simple random sampling in the selection of the respondents per grade. A structured questionnaire, a Key Informants Interview guide, and a structured observation checklist were used in data collection. This study found that that Kikuyu Water Company served the largest population of schools, 64.5 percent as the main source of water for schools in Kikuyu sub-county. However, some schools (48.4 percent) relied on shallow wells and a few (9.7 percent) were connected to the community water project/schemes. Water storage capacity in a majority of schools (56.3 percent) ranged between 30,000 and 60,000 litres, while 34.4 percent had less than 30,000 litres water storage and only 9.4 percent of the schools had a capacity of more than 60,000 litres. It was established that most of the schools, 77.4 percent used treated drinking water while the rest, 23.6 percent did not. This study established that since the onset of COVID-19, a majority of schools developed and improved a significant number of WASH facilities in their respective schools. However, when this study was undertaken, a majority of schools (25, 78 percent) were still rated as having limited water supply service. Availability of sanitation facilities had moderately improved since 53 percent of the schools were rated as having limited sanitation services. This calls for strategic resource mobilization to equip schools with more WASH facilities to reach WHO and MoE standards to support primary education. Future researchers should explore further to identify the suitable funding models for WASH services development in schools and the best practices in the operation and maintenance of WASH facilities in public primary schools
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    Post Covid-19 Situational Analysis of Water Sanitation and Hygiene in Public Primary Schools in Kiambu County, Kenya
    (International Academic Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing (IAJHMN), 2025-06) Wanjiku, Stanley Njau; Akunga, Daniel; Isabella Kingori
    Increased enrolment of children in public schools since the inception of free primary education in Kenya has been attributed to the progressive pressure on the existing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools. The main objective of this study was to assess the status of WASH services in Kikuyu sub-county primary schools post Coronavirus Disease (COVID19) outbreak. The study applied a crosssectional study design to collect data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The target respondents were students in grades 5 through 8 and the head teachers. At the same time, the key informants were the environment teachers and the subcounty director of education. The study involved all thirty- two (32) public primary schools in Kikuyu Sub-County where 393 respondents were selected through a multistage stratified sampling technique involving both boys and girls from different schools in the sub-county and simple random sampling in the selection of the respondents per grade. A structured questionnaire, a Key Informants Interview guide, and a structured observation checklist were used in data collection. This study found that that Kikuyu Water Company served the largest population of schools, 64.5 percent as the main source of water for schools in Kikuyu sub-county. However, some schools (48.4 percent) relied on shallow wells and a few (9.7 percent) were connected to the community water project/schemes. Water storage capacity in a majority of schools (56.3 percent) ranged between 30,000 and 60,000 litres, while 34.4 percent had less than 30,000 litres water storage and only 9.4 percent of the schools had a capacity of more than 60,000 litres. It was established that most of the schools, 77.4 percent used treated drinking water while the rest, 23.6 percent did not. This study established that since the onset of COVID-19, a majority of schools developed and improved a significant number of WASH facilities in their respective schools. However, when this study was undertaken, a majority of schools (25, 78 percent) were still rated as having limited water supply service. Availability of sanitation facilities had moderately improved since 53 percent of the schools were rated as having limited sanitation services. This calls for strategic resource mobilization to equip schools with more WASH facilities to reach WHO and MoE standards to support primary education. Future researchers should explore further to identify the suitable funding models for WASH services development in schools and the best practices in the operation and maintenance of WASH facilities in public primary schools