In 2004 in Kenya, 125 people died and nearly 200 others were treated after eating aflatoxin-contaminated maize.[27] The deaths were mainly associated with homegrown maize that had not been treated with fungicides or properly dried before storage. Due to food shortages at the time, farmers may have been harvesting maize earlier than normal to prevent thefts from their fields, so that the grain had not fully matured and was more susceptible to infection.