Abstract Malnutrition among children under five years remains a major contributor to child illness and death in Kenya, including Kakamega County. In Musanda Sub-location, Mumias West Sub-county, the 2022 verbal autopsy conducted by KEMRI attributed 44.4% of under-five deaths to malnutrition, 33.3% of them severe cases, and the area accounted for 44.4% of children with faltering growth in the sub-county. This study aimed to identify malnourished children below five years in Musanda and to put in place interventions, using locally available foods, to improve their nutritional status. A descriptive cross-sectional design with multistage sampling was used. Data were collected through WHO-standard anthropometric measurements, structured caregiver questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with mothers. Interventions included training of Community Health Promoters and health care workers on the Baby Friendly Community Initiative, mother-to-mother support groups, Positive Deviance Hearth sessions with household follow-up, a multisectoral nutrition stakeholders forum, and community nutrition open days with growth monitoring. Of 506 children under five screened, 122 (24.1%) had moderate malnutrition, 25 (4.9%) had severe malnutrition and 169 (33.3%) were underweight. Since April 2023, 118 children (86%) with moderate malnutrition, all 25 severe cases (100%) and 142 underweight children (89.9%) have improved. These findings show that community-led, multisectoral interventions built on locally available foods and behaviour change can substantially reduce undernutrition in children under five.

REFERENCES

[1]. Casimir Funk (1884–1967): Coined the term "vital amine" (vitamin) in 1912 after observing that the hulls of unprocessed rice protected birds from beriberi. His work shifted the understanding of malnutrition away from strictly bacterial infections to nutrient deficiencies.

[2]. Dr. Cicely Williams (1893–1992): A Jamaican-born physician who first identified and named "Kwashiorkor" in 1933 while working in Ghana. She proved that this severe form of malnutrition (characterized by swollen bellies and edema) was explicitly caused by a lack of protein rather than a lack of vitamins.

[3]. Professor Sir John Waterlow (1916–2010): Set up the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit in Jamaica in 1954. He categorized childhood malnutrition into stunting (low height-for-age) and wasting (low weight-for-height). Alongside Donald McLaren, Waterlow also famously corrected the global health "protein gap" fallacy in 1974, proving that caloric energy insufficiency was just as crucial as protein intake.

[4]. Dr. Nevin Scrimshaw (1918–2013): Founder of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP). He pioneered the clinical understanding of the lethal cycle between malnutrition and infection, showing that malnutrition weakens the immune system, making infectious illnesses far more lethal.

[5]. Dr. Coluthur Gopalan (1918–2019): Widely recognized as the "Father of Indian Nutrition Science." Driven by the 1942 Bengal Famine, his extensive research on protein-calorie malnutrition and micronutrients laid the technical framework for major safety nets like India's Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

[6]. Drs. Jeffrey Gordon and Tahmeed Ahmed: In a series of ground-breaking studies culminating in 2024, microbiome scientist Jeffrey Gordon (Washington University) and childhood malnutrition expert Tahmeed Ahmed (icddr,b) discovered that severe acute malnutrition disrupts the development of a child's gut microbiome. Their research paved the way for microbiome-directed therapeutic foods to repair gut health. [1, 2]