Hospital locked out of mall after landlord refuse to extend lease

Laser Eye hospital entrance at Sarit Centre. [Standard]

The management of Sarit Centre has made good their threat to lock out a hospital from the premises despite the dispute pending before the Court of Appeal.

Doctors and patients at the Laser Eye Centre at the premises woke up to a rude shock when they found the management had changed the locks to the hospital entrance and put up notices warning patients in need of specialised eye-care from the facility to look for alternatives.

According to the notice posted on the hospital’s door, the Sarit Centre management stated that they were repossessing the hospital’s third-floor premise after the expiry of their lease which they had refused to renew.

Hoarding the premises

“The landlord shall not be renewing the lease to the premise and consequently, the landlord shall be hoarding the premises on August 1, 2020, and no one shall be allowed access to the premises,” read the notice.

Laser Eye Centre MD Dr Mukesh Joshi lamented that it was immoral for the management to evict them out when the dispute is still in court and hundreds of patients who had appointments to be treated being inconvenienced.

“The matter is coming up before the Court of Appeal on Monday and waiting for two days would have not changed anything. We do not understand the hurry in evicting us from the premise,” said Joshi.

The eviction comes a day after Joshi pleaded to be allowed to continue operating and save thousands of patients who are at risk of suffering for lack of treatment.

The hospital moved to the Court of Appeal on Thursday after the land’s court dismissed its application to temporarily extend its period at the Sarit Centre to enable the management get engineers and experts to relocate the hospital’s sensitive eye-care equipment.

Joshi said they have petitioned parliament which has promised to investigate the matter which makes no sense of the hurry to remove them from a place they have operated and treated thousands of patients for the past 20 years. “Sarit Centre management believes that the closure of a Health Facility at this time is the best thing.

This is a terrible shame and reflects very badly on privileged sections of Kenyan society. They may be privately owned, but it is for the sole purpose of providing services to the public at large,” he said.

In the application filed at the Court of Appeal through Lawyer Philip Murgor, the hospital argues that it is a specialised eye hospital with massive investment in medical equipment, which will be destroyed should the forced eviction proceed.

He argued that the forcible eviction will have far-reaching consequences as the critical ophthalmological care it offers to thousands of patients would come to a standstill.