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“What is there to celebrate about this Christmas?” Walter Kiriku asked. “I have been here for the past six months and there is no sign I am going home any time soon.”
Since July, the only home Kiriku has known are the four walls of the ward he is confined in at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
He was admitted with a broken hip, which has yet to heal, but he is now also nursing a broken heart because he will not join his four children back in Gachie, Kiambu County, for the festivities.
The 55-year-old, who was once a strong man working as a mason, is now frail. He cannot stand up without a groan.
He slipped one night at home, he said, and was rushed to Kihara District Hospital, where a proposal was made to fit him with an implant worth Sh35,000.
However, after examining his age, it was found that he needed a more complex implant.
“I am supposed to pay Sh200,000 for an implant in my hip. But where is the money? So even as people are celebrating Christmas, my worry and that of my family is my health,” he says.
His neighbour, John Kamau, who had come to visit him, explained that the man was poor and that his family has been trying to collect money through harambees.
“But you know harambee za vijijini ni za shilingi mia mbili au mia moja. Hiyo hata haiwezi kusaidia kitu (You know fundraising in the villages cannot help much. The most they contribute is Sh100 or Sh200),” he said.
In the corridor we met Wanjiku Ngugi. She has no idea how much the hospital charged her but she says her family has paid half the bill.
An attack by robbers last month is what landed her in KNH. She sustained deep cuts on her hands, legs, and head, which have been stitched but have yet to heal fully, as evidenced by her swollen hand. She struggled to sign the consent form before she was interviewed.
She was sharing the corridor with four other female patients who are also in the same predicament.
Due to the high number of patients in the ward, she said, some of them have had to make their beds on the walkways or corridors to give room for the newly admitted.
“I have to admit that I have been treated well. But I have been stuck here now for a whole month. My problem are my two children. I do not even know how I am going to get them to school next year,” she said.
She added: “It is this accident that made me take a cover with the National Health Insurance Fund, but since it has not matured, I cannot use it. I just have to find a way to pay.”
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