By Isaiah Lucheli
NAIROBI, KENYA: Kidney patients in the country have moved to court accusing the ministry of health for failing to purchase adequate medicine dialysis equipment hampering their efforts to access mandatory treatment.
The over 300 patients submitted that the government’s failure to buy dialysis machine contravened articles of the constitution that provided for the right to life and the one that stipulates that no person shall discriminate against another.
“The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has declined to pay the high cost of dialysis at private hospitals. At the moment the petitioners are in dilemma as the machines at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) are few and majority of them cannot access treatment,” they said through lawyer Manyonge Wanyama.
The patients suffering from renal failure explained that there were 20 dialysis machines at the KNH but 14 had broken down leaving only six operational making it impossible for them to access the compulsory treatment.
“The net effect is that the very few patients access the working dialysis machines as the hospital gives preference to admitted patients sidelining the petitioners,” said Luco Njagi who is undergoing dialysis in a sworn affidavit.
The patients submitted that the Ministry of Health had primary obligation to protect and promote the petitioners right to health, which is defined and guaranteed by international customary law, international human rights treaties and the country’s constitution.
Dialysis is a process of removing waste and excess water from the blood and is used primarily as an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure.
The patients noted that the cost of treatment was very high and unaffordable to many of them and want the court to compel the ministry of health to pay the patients dialysis treatment at 8 private hospitals in the city pending the buying of the equipment by the government.
They hospital include The Nairobi hospital, The Nairobi women’s hospital, The Aga Khan hospital, The MP Shah hospital, The Marter hospital, Nairobi West Hospital The Karen hospital and the Parklands Dialysis Centre.
The patients who have sued NHIF, KNH and the ministry want the government to be compelled to subsidize the cost of dialysis in the private hospital and added that if the private hospital charges Sh 10,000 they should pay Sh 2,050 while the ministry of health pays the difference.
“The alternative is for the court to issue an order compelling the ministry of health to subsidize the cost of the dialysis medicine in the private hospitals pending the purchasing of the new equipment,” said the petitioners.
The patients submit that the state had failed to repair the existing machines to an extent that they are unable to access mandatory treatment which violates Article 26 (i) which state that every person had a right to life.
“The petitioners pray to court to issue a declaration that the action of the ministry to deny or fail to provide adequate health care services to the petitioners subjects them to inhumane treatment and thus expressly and singularly violates the provisions of Article 28 of the constitution,” said the lawyer.
