Fresh details have emerged regarding the death of baby Travis Maina who had a fork jembe lodged in his skull after the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) management requested an inquest into the death of the baby.
The chief executive officer of KNH Evanson Kamuri testified before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday, December 6, that baby Travis could have been a victim of domestic strife between the father and mother.
Kamuri argued that the level of injury inflicted on the baby could not have been caused by children as the mother alleged.
He also emphasized that the victim’s mother lamented how her baby had been killed by her husband moments after she learned of Travis’ death.
“It is an issue that requires to be investigated by another body. When we informed the woman about the death of her son, she stated about how her baby had been killed by her husband,” KNH CEO Evanson Kamuri told Senate Health Committee.
“The mother needs to come clean about what happened. We are very sorry for what happened but we have also been asking ourselves questions. The injury was severe and it could not have been inflicted by other children while playing,” he added.
In response to Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago’s question on why the minor was not rushed to the theatre, Kamuri told the lawmakers that the baby had lost so much blood.
“We first needed to give him blood. And being a baby, that process is much slower because, if we could have given him too much blood at once, there was a risk of cardiac arrest,” Kamuri insisted.
“We have CCTV cameras. You can take a look and see exactly what happened from the time the baby arrived at the hospital,” he added.
Earlier, The deceased mother, Judy Muthoni, had told the committee that her six-year-old son had struck the baby.
The older son informed Muthoni’s aunt, who rushed to inform her of the ordeal before they both went to the hospital.
“My aunt came to the fence and told me that Travis had been struck and my cousin had rushed him to the nearby dispensary,” Muthoni stated amid sobs.
The mother pointed accusing fingers at the hospital, claiming that the boy’s life could have been saved if the hospital had acted immediately after they arrived at the facility.
The mother claimed that she waited nearly 14 hours for her son to be taken into the operating room, and when he was, he breathed his last before her eyes.
“In my opinion, KNH did not act swiftly and immediately. They took more time to attend to the baby. If they had acted fast, the boy would not have died,” she narrated.
However, the committee has vowed to investigate both claims further before drawing conclusions.
