Anyone know what this terrible thing is?

• Something horrible is eating Stanley, 8. His mum just wants to know what it is

Stanley’s mother fears that it may not only be his education that suffers. “He does not sleep well and eats very little,” she says. Since sitting on the sofa can be painful, he spends most of the time on a carpet laid out especially for him.

During one of the visits to hospital when the doctor was explaining that nothing could be done, young Stanley burst into tears. His mother recounts: “He asked me ‘Why is my body different from the other children?’”

“I assure him that one day he will be better but he cried ‘But the doctor said I won’t get better’. I didn’t know what to tell him,” said the sad 24-year-old mother.

It is such frustration that drove her to cross the border in search of a traditional medicine man. Accompanied by her sister, and the little boy, she packed her bags and headed to Tanzania.

“The herbalist was visibly shocked when he saw Stanley,” she narrated. “He did not say what he though it was but gave me some syrup, ointment and soap which I was to wash him with.”

The travelling and medicine cost a fortune for the young and struggling family. The three got stranded in Tanzania and had to ask a friend to send them money for transport back.

For two months she diligently administered the syrup, spread the ointment and bathed her first-born in the herbs as instructed. There was no improvement.

With the doctors and herbalists having failed her, an exasperated Ms Atieno has only one request: “I want to know if there is anyone out there who knows what this disease is.”

She asks for specialists or even people who have the disease to tell her of what treatment to administer to her son.

“All I give him now is painkillers like Brufen, which only stops the pain for a while,” she added.

Her two other children are very healthy so she does not understand what went wrong.

Of her visits to Kenyatta, he says: “I wish they could refer me to someone else instead of always prescribing painkillers.”

Finding help has now become a community effort with the primary school’s headteacher, community health workers and neighbours joining in.

“We are all trying to get help for the child,” said Terry Wayua, the neighbour who alerted Nation to the boy’s plight.

Efforts to reach dermatologists at KNH for comment were futile as one was out for the weekend and the other could be only seen by appointment.