Senate Health Committee is calling on the government to temporarily close Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital to allow room for thorough investigations into alleged neglect among hospital staff.
This follows the hearing of testimonies from Kenyans who have lost their loved ones at the hospital over the years.
The hospital, which is named after the wife of Kenya’s third president, has been on the spotlight several times now over alleged cases of medical malpractice.
On Tuesday, the nine-member committee heard from a mother who lost her son at the hospital after nurses failed to attend to him. Her son had been involved in a road accident and was brought to the facility by police officers.
According to the mother, the nurses did not do anything and they were forced to move to a different facility. The 41-year-old man was pronounced dead on arrival.
The committee also heard from a first-time dad who lost his wife at the same hospital after she delivered twins. She bled to death.
One senator called for the committee to recommend that medics take individual responsibility for negligence.
“These are serious cases of negligence. These deaths could have been avoided had the people in charge acted with speed and professionalism,” Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu said.
he senators led by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago, the committee’s chairperson, called for a thorough investigation into the hospital.
“No one should lose their life while giving another life. We are here to ensure such occurrences don’t happen again,” he said.
The committee will invite nurses from Kiambu Level Five Hospital to tell the committee in what condition they received Maureen Onyango, who died at the hospital.
Officials from Nairobi County will also be invited to shed light on how Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital operates and why the doctors referred a patient to Kiambu and not the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Several public hospitals have been accused of negligence in the past in cases that were all found to be institutional and human resource-related.
Very few health workers have been found guilty of negligence.
