During this rainy season, Mukothima, Kibung’a and Kanyuru villages in Tharaka South sub-County are beautiful places to tour, the rolling hills covered with lush vegetation a sight to behold.
A close look at trees reveals some insects enter into the crevices while others exit, with the residents saying they are making honey.
In the Tharaka community, traditional beekeeping is widely practiced with honey being harvested for domestic use and for preparing a traditional brew known as ‘Uki’. However, residents say wild honey is sweeter than that made by normal bees in hives.
But here, lies the danger. The honey loved by the hunter-gatherer community in the largely semi-arid area has lately turned into poison. It is sweet but deadly.
Over the past three years, at least 12 people have died after consuming wild honey. This has however not stopped the craving for the delicacy the community has partaken of for decades.
Wild honey is made by insects known in the local dialect as nchuura, whose scientific name we could not immediately establish.
After consuming poisonous wild honey, some victims die at home while those taken to hospital survive. In July 2022, a woman who is an adherent of Kabonokia religious sect refused to seek medical treatment citing her faith which advocates for prayers and not treatment. She died at home.
Following the recent incident on March 31 in which Godfrey Mwendia, a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother, 91 died after consuming the honey, we set out to find out why some residents eat it despite the threat to life.
According to Kennedy Kitharia, 54, whose child survived the latest incident, they used to fetch it from trees since they were young boys and nothing wrong used to happen to them, wondering what has changed.
“It is tempting. The honey is very sweet, sweeter than the one made by bees in hives. When we were young we used to hunt in tree crevices and harvest it. We would take it to our relatives and they would enjoy it. But over the past 10 years, it has turned out to be poison and we don’t know the reason,” Kitharia said.
At Kang’ombe village in Kanyuru where a family lost the two members, survivors narrated how they narrowly cheated death, vowing never to partake of the wild honey.
Edward Mutugi, 27 who survived the ordeal said he had heard of its dangers but decided to eat it. He said most people believed that those who had died after consuming wild honey were poisoned by their enemies.
“My uncle told my grandmother not to eat it but I decided to taste it. It was sweet so I ate to my full and nothing happened for more than 10 hours. At around midnight, we got news that my grandmother was gone. I took the children to hospital and on the way I also started vomiting…
“It was such an experience that I will never consume even genuine honey. For more than 10 hours I never felt anything but after that, my body became so weak that I could not even walk…I survived by the grace of God,” he said.
Gediel Muthure, the father of the 10-year-old victim said when he arrived home at night he found his mother dead.
“My son loved his grandmother so much that any time he found anything to eat he would share it with her. That was how when he ate the honey and enjoyed it he took some to her. That was the end of my mother,” he said.
Jackson Chabari, the area Community Health Promoter (CHP) says when the incident occurred he visited the village where after inquiries with elders, he was informed there are tree flowers from which the insects are not supposed to harvest nectar.
“The elders say that there are flowers that are not safe and nchuura is not selective while harvesting nectar, unlike the normal bees. They also say if the honey stays in tree crevices for long it turns into poison,” Chabari said.
“We are also sensitising members of the community, especially children who go to look after livestock that they should not consume this honey because it is poisonous,” he added.
Mr Chabari claimed that the nectar the insects were collecting might also have been contaminated by chemicals sprayed on plants, saying the residents in the area had resorted to mixing the chemicals with others after realising they were ineffective on pests.
According to Mr Titus Mwirigi, who owns a bee farm in Buuri constituency, Meru County, the poison in the wild honey could be a result of the inability of the insects to detect which nectar is poisonous and the safe one.
“The normal bees come across poisonous nectar but they don’t touch it. At the same time, the bee first processes nectar in the stomach before it produces it to make honey and there is a possibility that the enzymes in the stomach neutralise any poisonous material. But more research needs to be done to establish why the wild honey is poisonous,” he said.
“Even the normal bees process honey tasting differently depending on where nectar was sourced from. There is some honey that after consuming one experiences hallucinations,” he added.
Health officers have warned residents in the affected areas to stop consuming wild honey until it is established the type of chemical that contaminates it to the point of causing death.
Zaberio Njagi, Tharaka South sub-County health officer said after the four incidents, they had taken samples to the government chemist. However, no conclusive results have been obtained with one sample turning out negative for any chemical components.
Mr Njagi said it was surprising that the patients didn’t complain of any pains but only vomit and diarrhoea with abdominal discomfort and swelling stomach.
He also noted that it had not been possible to establish the type of poison that had killed the victims since no postmortem had been conducted on the bodies.
“We have been requesting for bacterial analysis but in the recent incident we asked the government chemist to carry out toxicological tests so that we can establish the chemical compound in this honey,” Mr Njagi said.
Mr Njagi said going by the pattern of reported incidents, they would not be surprised that another one would happen in a different area.
“We request our residents in areas where the incidents have not yet been reported to be careful since the honey presents itself as poison. The body system takes time to respond to food poisoning and those who suspect they consumed it should report to a health facility for treatment,” he added.
