A quick intervention by neighbours saved the children who ate chameleons in the Sirikwa area of Molo Sub-County.
Their mother had resigned to fate after being referred to Molo Sub-County Hospital.
Joyce Chepngetich said she resolved to give her two children a wood-ash concoction to neutralize the chameleon poison because she could not afford money for transport or medical fee at the referred hospital.
Her three children had ingested a meal of chameleon soup and potatoes on Wednesday while she was away doing menial jobs in the neighbouring farms.
Speaking at the hospital where one of her children had been admitted since Saturday last week, the mother of nine said her son, 7 made the meal due to hunger.
"My children had not fed for two days, the elder brother slaughtered two chameleons and boiled them with a few pieces of potatoes that were remaining in the house," she said.
Chepngetich said the boy took a wood-ash concoction immediately after taking the poisonous meal which could have saved him.
The mother and her sister-in-law, Janet Keter took the two younger children to Nyakinyua Dispensary but were referred to Molo Sub-County Hospital.
"I returned home and gave him wood ash with the hope that it would work the same way it did for the bigger one," she said.
Two days later, neighbours had to rush the badly dehydrated children to the hospital where they were immediately placed on a drip.
Medical Superintendent Bernard Warui said the two children were brought in suffering from abdominal pains, diarrhoea and vomiting.
"The children were also starved because they had not eaten for two days since Wednesday when they ate the poisonous meal," he said.
Speaking when he discharged the children, Warui said the children also had poisoning from the reptiles.
The incident comes barely three months after street children in Molo town were caught slaughtering a stray dog.
The street children said they wanted to eat dog meat due to hunger.
Today, Governor Susan Kihika paid the hospital bill and offered a job for the children's mother.
Her two children who are of legal age will also be employed by the county government while those of school-going age will be enrolled.
Kuresoi North Sub-County administrator, Nicholas Kiplagat said the Governor also bought four beds, beddings, household items and clothing for the needy family.
Kiplagat said the governor also relocated the family to a new rented house complete with an upfront rent payment for the three months.
Chepngetich and her children were living in a makeshift house in the interior parts of Kuresoi North.
