Student under hospital arrest after institution fails to foot bill

By Vincent Mabatuk

Naivasha, Kenya: A student at a Government training Institution in Naivasha has been under hospital arrest for the last one week after the school failed to pay his medical bills.

Kenya Wildlife Training Institute is on the spot after the student accidentally slipped and fell in Lake Bogoria during an educational field trip on July 26.

James Gicheru who is pursuing a Diploma in Environmental Management was saved by locals and fellow students but he had already swallowed the salty water and mud before being rushed to Marigat District Hospital where he was given first Aid and rushed to Nakuru for specialized treatment.

Speaking in his bed at Nakuru’s Mediheal hospital where he is being detained for a bill of Sh278,756, the 21 year-old student who survived the ordeal said he is yet to understand why the school has abandoned him.

“I am thanking God that I am alive but the problem now is that I am imprisoned in this hospital. I was discharged on August 1 but I cannot leave the hospital because of the bill,” he said.

Gicharu was admitted to the school on April 29 and the parent has since paid Sh55, 000 for the first semester, which includes insurance money.

Mary Wamboi, Gicharu’s mother said rangers and a lecturer who had accompanied the 95 students on the tour first took the student to Rift Valley Provincial Hospital but had to change because the facility was experiencing a blackout at the time.

She accused the college management for refusing to settle the bill saying her son now risks not sitting for the end term exams.

Wamboi said doctors at Mediheal struggled to save her son’s life, who was placed under an Intensive Care Unit where he stayed for three days.

Gicharu said he slipped and fell into the lake at 6pm when a group of students had lined up to bathe along the lake.

Two days after the accident that almost ended the life of her first born child, Wamboi received a shocking message from unknown sender informing her that  Gicharu was critically ill in hospital.

“James is sick and admitted at Mediheal hospital Nakuru and you are urgently needed,” read the massage.

While still in state of denial the sender called and introduced himself as Antony Wendot her son’s roommate in college who broke the sad news to her.

Wamboi says the Acting Human Resource Manger Patrick Kombo informed her that the Sh500 students pay each semester for insurance only covers snake bites and road accidents but not any other accidents.

When The standard contacted Kombo, he referred our team to deputy Principal Roslyn Onyuru who refused to answer questions but demanded to know who sent the reporters to the institution and for what.

“What you are raising is in our Knowledge and will be addressed,” she said before storming out of assistant director’s office.

There was drama when Onyuru locked The Standard team in the office and left only to be rescued by an employee who opened the door which had been closed from outside.

Although the incident occurred while on an education tour, the college has distanced itself from the boy only insisting to act as a guarantor and the parent putting in writing on how she plan to clear the bill.