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The cholera outbreak index case was reported on 19th October 2022 with its origin being traced to a wedding festival in Kiambu County which later spread across Kiambu, Nairobi, Murang’a, Kajiado Nakuru and Uasin Gishu counties. Since the start of the outbreak in October 2022, the MoH and its partners, including the Kenya Red Cross contributed to respond and prevent the spread of the cholera disease across the country. A rapid spread of cases was reported following the December festive and travel season across 25 counties which were reporting cases by 2023.
By Early 2023, the initial increased cases were mainly within Nairobi and in counties that share factors as persistent drought, communities utilizing unsafe water sources and limited access to sanitation and hygiene services and corresponding poor WASH practices. In particular, Nairobi, Tana River, Garissa and Wajir counties have recently reported increased caseloads with reported highest mortalities in Nairobi, Garissa, Tana River and Wajir counties.
Data reported from June to July 2023 showed that many counties achieved to control the raising of cases (19 counties on 25 initially aected) with an average of 7 to 10 counties with active cases. The active hotspots being either counties with an upsurge in the active counties (Mandera, Siaya, Homa-Bay, Mombasa, Wajir and Nairobi) or experiencing a relapse of the outbreak (Nairobi, Mandera and Siaya).
Kenya Red Cross supported the dierent stages of response to this outbreak as main partners of MoH at county and National level. On 22 December 2022, departments of health from the county governments of Kiambu, Nairobi, Meru and Tana River requested support from Red Cross. Based on that, a risk factor assessment for the cholera outbreak and the need for the emergency intervention, thus the trigger was met for the original DREF allocation. With the spread to new counties of Mandera, West Pokot, Homabay, Samburu and Marsabit;
Kenya Red Cross requested an extension of 3 months to continue with the response.
The trend of cholera obliged to scale-up again the support to counties with active cases, especially considering the mortality rate in some of the aected areas in June and July. This added to the fact that there was both an increase of cases over the recent weeks in the same counties and a sustained relapse of the outbreak in some of the aected counties.