More than 1,000 people die from snakebites each year and more than 19,000 cases are recorded annually, according to the Ministry of Health, as the country works to develop its first locally produced antivenom.

 

The figures were released on Saturday as International Snakebite Awareness Day was marked in Baringo, one of the areas with a high burden of snakebite.

 

Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni said the response was being expanded through community health workers, surveillance and mapping of areas where snakebites are common.

 

More than 5,000 Community Health Promoters have been trained in counties affected by snakebite to identify households at risk, give first aid, report cases and help victims reach health facilities, she said.

 

“This investment in our frontline health workforce is critical in reducing the time between a snakebite and access to appropriate care,” Muthoni said.

 

The ministry has completed county-level mapping of snakebite hotspots, which it says will help guide the distribution of antivenom and emergency response.

 

Baringo and Turkana have some of the highest reported burdens, according to the Kenya Institute of Primate Research. Other affected counties include Kitui, West Pokot, Tana River, Samburu, Kilifi and Narok. Garissa, Wajir and Mandera are also affected.

 

The government is developing what it says will be the country’s first domestically produced antivenom through KIPRE, using venom from snake species found locally.

 

The work includes mapping venomous species, assessing the national burden and examining the feasibility of producing antivenom locally. The Ministry of Health began working with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on the work in 2025.

 

A National Antivenom Quality Control Laboratory is also being established at KIPRE to test and assess antivenom.

 

The scale of the problem is difficult to measure precisely. The World Health Organization estimates that between 4.5 million and 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes worldwide each year, with between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths. Hundreds of thousands more are left with permanent disabilities.

 

Snakebite envenoming was added to the WHO’s list of neglected tropical diseases in 2017. Its global strategy, launched two years later, aims to halve deaths and disability from snakebite by 2030.

 

This year’s awareness day focuses on the disabilities that can follow a bite, including amputations, tissue damage, impaired movement, paralysis and nerve damage. Some survivors develop psychological problems including post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety.

 

The WHO says the burden is concentrated in rural and poorer communities, where people may live far from health facilities and where snakebite cases are often not recorded because victims do not seek hospital treatment.

 

Muthoni said snakebite reporting had been incorporated into the Kenya Health Information System at health facilities, while community surveillance had been activated through the Electronic Community Health Information System.

 

Snakebite surveillance is also being incorporated into mass drug administration campaigns, she said, using existing community health structures to collect information from affected areas.

 

The country is also involved in the international effort to tackle snakebite. Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale is a co-chair of the Global Snakebite Taskforce, launched at the World Health Assembly in 2025.

 

For people bitten by a suspected venomous snake, WHO recommends keeping the victim still, removing anything tight around the affected limb and getting to a health facility as quickly as possible. It advises against cutting the wound, sucking out venom, using herbal medicines or applying a tight arterial tourniquet.

 

Pressure immobilisation can be used in some circumstances, particularly for bites from snakes whose venom causes neurological effects without significant local swelling, but WHO does not recommend it as a universal response to snakebite.

 

The ministry’s figures put snakebite among the health risks that remain concentrated in parts of the country where access to timely treatment can be difficult, while efforts to produce antivenom locally are still under development.