She sat under the earthen floor in the mud-walled house clutching her two weeks old baby, utensils were strewn all over as four of her other hunger ravaged children gulped porridge poured in one cup, in turns.
Potbellied, dry skin, stunted growth and reduced muscle mass were some of the noticeable things you could see in the minors, with one severely sick.
Sheila Cherutich, 40, from the remote Kemeloi village, Sabor in Baringo South was yet to come to terms with the loss of her six-year-old daughter on Monday morning due to acute malnutrition.
As fate would have it, the mother of ten had also lost one of her daughters when she was barely four years in 2008 to the same condition, a situation she described as a skin ailment.
When the Nation toured the aggrieved family on Monday, the body of the deceased minor who succumbed to the condition two hours after midnight was still in one of the houses, wrapped in a mosquito net on the floor waiting to be buried the same day for lack of funds to transport it for preservation at the Kabarnet hospital morgue.
The dilapidated house which had fissures was also a disaster in waiting as snakes, which are common in the area would also creep at night.
Being a lactating mother with a two weeks old baby with more than five children below the age of seven, food should have been available but we observed that though they were supposed to be taking afternoon meal, there was nothing to be cooked completely.
According to the mother, her woes began in 2004 when she gave birth to her first born girl. A few months later, the child developed cracks on her skin which gradually became pale and dry and was too weak to talk or even cry.
http://www.nation.co.ke
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