Disease affecting affluent Kenyans

It is called the "silent killer".

In Kenya the official rate for people suffering from the disease, diabetes is 3.5%, but even the experts at the Ministry of Health in Nairobi know this is a ludicrous underestimate.

The real rate of diabetes in Kenya is more like 10%, and some say it could be higher.

Of all the serious non-communicable diseases, diabetes has the distinction of being the least diagnosed.

The World Diabetes Foundation, which is issuing grave warnings that diabetes is turning into a pandemic, estimates that in the developing world a quarter of people who have diabetes don't realise it.

The symptoms of thirst, aching joints, failing eyesight and loss of balance are put down to old age or a persistent cold or a virus.