By Isaiah Lucheli

Kidney patients have moved to court accusing the Ministry of Health of failing to purchase adequate medicines and dialysis equipment.

They say lack of the equipment is hampering efforts to access mandatory treatment. The over 300 patients submitted that the GovernmQent’s failure to buy dialysis machine contravened the Constitution on the right to life.

Under a certificate of urgency, the renal patients who have been undergoing treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) for five years explained they were unable to access the treatment for the past few weeks and were at risk of death.

“The kidneys have an important role in maintaining a person’s health. They maintain the body’s internal equilibrium of water and minerals. Without medicine a person suffering from renal failure dies,” they submitted through their lawyer Peter Wanyama.

The patients 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 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.

They said the ministry 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 Constitution.

Dialysis involves removing waste and excess water from the blood and is used primarily as an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in patients with renal failure.

A kidney patient has to undergo medicine dialysis three times a week to be fit. 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 eight  private hospitals in the city pending the purchase of the equipment by the Government.

The  hospitals include Nairobi Hospital, Nairobi Women’s Hospital, Aga Khan Hospital, MP Shah, The Mater Hospital, Nairobi West Hospital, The Karen Hospital and the Parklands Dialysis Centre.

“The National Hospital Insurance Fund has declined to pay the high cost of dialysis at private hospitals. At the moment the petitioners are in dilemma as the machines at KNH are few,” said Wanyama.

The petition is set to be heard at the High Court next week.