Drama as heads of pigs abandoned outside Kiambu hospital

Two of the six heads of dead pigs that were found abandoned outside Kiambu Level Five Hospital. (Kamau Maichuhie, Standard).

Drama unfolded at Kiambu Level Five Hospital after residents found six heads of pigs abandoned at the gate.

The heads which were dropped by Operation Ondoa Panya, a human rights Organisation had a ribbon written ‘Kiambu Hospital Thieves’ on them.

The organisation’s National Coordinator John Wamagata said they had put the heads at the hospital gate to protest alleged poor leadership and service delivery at facility.

“The hospital has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. There have been allegations that patients have not been getting enough food, drugs and congestion,” said Wamagata.

He said as an organisation, they could not understand how the hospital was unable to offer good services to the patients yet it was generating its own revenue and getting a conditional grant from the national government by the virtue of it being in level five status.

“We are in the process of writing to the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Hajji to order audit of the hospital’s financial management. Another letter will go to President Uhuru Kenyatta requesting him to intervene and restore sanity at the hospital once and for all,” he said.

Curious residents thronged at the hospital gate as they angled to get a glimpse of what was transpiring there.

Samson Njoroge, a hawker outside the hospital said they saw a car come early in the morning and drop the heads before speeding off.

The hospital which was last year elevated to the level five status has for the last couple of months been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Patients have been complaining about lack of enough food, drugs and congestion at the hospital.

More than two expectant mothers have been sharing a bed in the maternity. The same have also been happening at the male wards. In pediatric ward, two to four babies have been sharing a bed.

 The patients have also been complaining that they were been required to come with blankets and utensils before they are admitted.

On Tuesday, there was drama at the hospital after a family from Karia village in Githunguri which had come to collect the body of Stephen Mburu from mortuary found it missing.

Njeri Mburu, the widow, said the relatives were shocked when they realised that her husband’s body was not at the mortuary.

It was later established that Mburu’s body was at Kibugi Funeral Home in Kutus town, Kirinyaga County.

The hospital medical superintendent, Jesse Ngugi, said the body was transferred due to a mix-up.

Dr Ngugi said Mburu’s body was exchanged with that of Jackson Kariuki from Kutus.

Last month, doctors at the hospital were on the spotlight after they declared a 20-day-old baby dead and even issued a burial permit to the family.

However, in what could turn out to be one of the worst and most chilling cases of medical negligence, the boy was not dead.

When his parents were on their way at their home in Lioki, Githunguri to bury him, he coughed and started crying.

Kiambu Health Executive Dr Joseph Murega denied that county hospitals were facing medicine and food shortage crisis but acknowledged that the health facilities were overcrowded.

Dr Andrew Toro, the county health chief officer, blamed the congestion being experienced at Kiambu, Thika and Gatundu Level Five hospitals to influx of patients from neighbouring Nairobi, Murang’a, Nakuru and Machakos counties.

Governor Ferdinand Waititu on Tuesday said there was nothing his administration could do at the moment to ease congestion at Kiambu hospital.

He said about of 50 per cent of 1,000 patients that are normally treated at the hospital daily were from Nairobi County.

“It only means that patients receive good quality services at the hospital. That is why they keep on coming here and we cannot turn them away,” said Waititu.