Pumwani staff 'threatened by bosses' in twins saga

Nairobi: Workers allegedly linked to the disappearance of twin babies at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital are on suspension, the Senate Health Committee has heard.

The committee investigating the matter was informed Tuesday that the workers are being threatened with the sack if they don't testify as instructed by their superiors in order to protect their bosses and fellow workers from possible blame in the saga.

The committee members led by its chairperson, Senator Mohammed Kuti (Isiolo County), warned the Pumwani management and that of City Mortuary against issuing such threats to influence the workers' testimonies.

The committee confirmed receiving a number of correspondences from workers of the two institutions who expressed fear over their jobs due to their testimonies.

"We instruct those workers who are threatened by the superiors to report to us for action," during hearings at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

Senator Wilfred Machage (Migori) said there was also intimidation from top officials of the county government which runs both institutions.

Tuesday, Pumwani officials insisted the babies' bodies taken to the City Mortuary for preservation were not the ones on which postmortems were conducted.

City Mortuary officials were at a loss to explain if the bodies they received were indeed the ones in contention.

In her testimony Tuesday, Beth Maina, a pediatrician at Pumwani, said when she visited the mortuary during the postmortem she immediately noticed that the babies placed on the operating table were not the ones that had been released from Pumwani.

"The photos taken after birth did not march with the bodies I saw at City Mortuary which looked surprisingly fresh," she said.

Hearings on the saga are set to resume next week when Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduol is slated to shed light on postmortem and DNA tests. Jacinta Wanjiku had the twins at the hospital on January 6 with controversy emerging on whether the babies were born dead or alive.