Mutomo residents celebrate global hand washing day

By Daniel Mwendo

Global hand washing day celebrations are held every 15^th October worldwide. In Mutomo, the celebrations were held at Mutomo primary school grounds.The function was sponsored by World Vision (Mutomo) in partnership with the Ministries of Water, Health and Education among others.

The event is annually held as a reminder to the people that hand washing should be made a routine activity in order to keep the chances of bacterial infection at the minimum.

The Deputy District Public Health Officer,Mr. Stephen Mbeni  Musyoka 

demonstrates proper hand washing technique (Photo:Daniel 

Mwendo/MCV)

Mr Robert Kusinga, Mutomo location’s chief  read the official speech on behalf of the Deputy county director who was absent.In his speech, the deputy county director indicated that little emphasis was being placed on hand washing and that they were using the children as change agents.He asked education officers at all levels to promote cleanliness.

During the occasion, the Deputy District Public Health Officer, Mr Stephen Mbeni Musyoka, demonstrated to the gathering how hand washing is done from a professional aspect.He also emphasised that children are very effective because they easily pass the information to the mothers.

“One is supposed to do hand washing after visiting the toilet, before and after preparing food, before and after eating food, before breastfeeding, after visiting sick people, after having an interaction with animals like milking and after doing any cleaning exercises and on arrival from any journey”, said Mr. Musyoka adding that 97% of communicable diseases are controllable if through good hygiene observation.

The District technical officer,Ministry of Water, Mr Benjamin Munyalo,said that most of the water they are getting in Mutomo especially in boreholes was very clean but people make it unclean by using dirty containers.He said that there is a need to boil the water and use aqua tabs.He also  advised those present to  get water from only designated water points and avoid destroying water pipelines as this not only risks their health but also defeats the governments effort to supply clean water to the public.