According to an audit, the Prisons Department owes Kenya’s referral public mental hospital Sh868 million for hosting and treating hardcore criminals over the last seven years.
It has yet to pay Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital for the examination, treatment, and placement of mentally ill inmates charged with murder.
Before being charged in a court of law, every capital offender is required by law to undergo a mental evaluation.
Mathari has a maximum-security ward with 250 beds for potentially violent inmates.
As they are considered ‘guests of the State,’ all patients sent to Mathari by the courts do not pay user fees.
According to Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the Forensic Department and/or Maximum Security Unit account for 30% of Mathari Hospital’s population and deal with in-patients who are law offenders hospitalized for an average of two years.
“However, for the last seven years, the hospital has not received the amount of Sh868,501,000 from the Prisons Department to cater for these patients,” Ms Gathungu stated in an audit of the Ministry of Health’s books for the fiscal year ending June 2021.
The audit revealed that there is no memorandum of understanding on financing plans between Prisons and the hospital.
“To this extent, the hospital is being stretched financially and may not offer the services as envisioned,” she said.
Mathari is the only referral hospital for inpatient psychiatric forensic services, and all courts refer patients there for examinations regardless of bed capacity, occupancy, or patient management resources.
The hospital has a bed capacity of 1,200, but several wards have leaking roofs, forcing all patients to squeeze into rooms designed for 700.
Those who have already been convicted but are mentally ill are also housed in the maximum-security ward.
Patients from prisons, police stations, and the mentally ill found in public places are housed in the maximum-security ward.
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