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An eye hospital has sent a distress call to the government to save thousands of patients who are at risk of suffering after the landlord issued an eviction notice from its premises.
Mukesh Joshi, the managing director of Laser Eye Centre, has also appealed to the government to intervene and save its multi-million shilling investment in the eye care hospital located at Sarit Centre, Nairobi.
“We offer specialised treatment and laser surgery and have treated thousands of patients suffering from eye conditions for the last 20 years here. There are tens of surgeries scheduled for the coming weeks and others are receiving post-surgery treatment, all of whom will be severely affected by the eviction,” Joshi said.
Dismissed
The management of Sarit Centre has already issued notices that it will take over the hospital as from today and evict the clinic, just two days after Environment and Lands Court Judge Samson Okong’o dismissed an application that sought to stop the eviction.
Justice Okong’o on Thursday rejected an application by the hospital to temporarily extend its tenancy at the Sarit Centre to enable engineers and technicians relocate the hospital’s sensitive eye-care equipment.
“The Ministry of Health and Kenya Medical Association have asked us not to close the hospital during this Covid-19 pandemic. President Uhuru Kenyatta has also publicly requested landlords to be considerate to tenants but the judge dismissed this as inconsequential,” Joshi said.
The hospital has appealed the judge’s decision and is awaiting the Court of Appeal’s direction on Monday.
In addition, Joshi said they have also petitioned Parliament to save them from the eviction.
The dispute started in 2017 when PBM Nominees Ltd which manages Sarit Centre notified the hospital of its intention to terminate its 20-year tenancy. The hospital went to court challenging the decision but the case was dismissed.
A mediator was then engaged to help resolve the dispute but on May 6, the Sarit Centre management came up with new demands asking the hospital to pay a full year’s rent of Sh7.8 million as a condition for renewing the lease.
But the hospital rejected the offer arguing that it was only able to pay a monthly rent as per the earlier agreement, leading to the notice by the landlord to vacate the premises by July 31.
In the application filed at the Court of Appeal through lawyer Philip Murgor, the hospital argues that it stands to lose millions of shillings in medical equipment that were installed by technicians from abroad and which can only be uninstalled by them. And this will be destroyed should the eviction be carried out.
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