Kakamega, 08 October, 2023 / 9:51 pm (ACI Africa).
Videos of Kenyan schoolgirls walking with difficulty, weeping and shaking uncontrollably took the internet by storm on Wednesday, October 4. Speculations were thrown around, with some suggesting that the students of St. Theresa’s Eregi Girls High School of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Kakamega were suffering from mass hysteria.
Healthline describes mass hysteria as “an outbreak of unusual and uncharacteristic behaviors, thoughts and feelings, or health symptoms shared among a group of people.”
By the end of October 4, some 106 students with the strange illness had been admitted to various hospitals in Eregi, western Kenya. Many, unable to walk, were wheeled to their hospital beds. Some remained in the school sick-room where their conditions were monitored.
On Friday, October 6, Fr. Boniface Kibaki, the Education Secretary in the Catholic Diocese of Kakamega informed ACI Africa that the hospitalized students had been examined and found to be free of infections.
“Medical results have come out with negative results. There is no disease. It is more of a psychological issue,” Fr. Kibaki said.