Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), the country’s biggest
referral hospital is every breastfeeding mother’s nightmare, following last
week’s rape and robbery allegations within the facility’s corridors.
New mothers, yet to physically and psychologically
heal from giving birth, told of the harrowing ordeals faced at night as they
went to breastfeed their new-borns, claims the KNH chief executive officer, Lily
Koross came out denying.
Mildred Owiso, broke the story on the Facebook group
‘Buyer
Beware’ about a lady who barely recovered from the caesarian section that
gave birth to her twins was nearly raped at 3 am as she went downstairs to breastfeed
her twins, in the nurseries on the ground floor.
The poor mother’s plight is the tip of the iceberg going
by the public outrage and allegations that greeted Owiso’s expose, on social
media.
Predictably, the hospital management came out to
defend the facility’s reputation, brushing off the allegations as fabrications,
a decision that drew public ire on social media, setting the stage for
demonstrations on Tuesday.
Caution, care and sobriety should be exercised by
all parties involved in the latest scandal facing the national hospital.
The public court should not admonish the leading
hospital in Kenya, but should give it every chance to air its story.
The management made a wrong decision to come out
guns blazing, to rubbish the claims, instead of seeking to hear from the
alleged victims and seek ways of handling the matter.
The scary truth is that what should be a heaven for
sick people has turned into hell, where pain and anguish are only exacerbated,
but where is the government? What has the management been doing all along? For
how long have these evil practices persisted? How many innocent and weak
mothers have silently suffered at Kenyatta National Hospital?
As the government seeks to find answers to these
uncomfortable truths, the biggest referral hospital in the region should be
brought into sharper focus.
Those responsible must be held to account. Those who
have overseen the criminal activities either through commission or omission
must face the law. All mothers who have suffered at the hands of these savage
staff at night should get justice.
Kenyans, the media, government and the hospital
management should join forces and make sure that the facility serves its
rightful purpose; giving hope and healthcare to the millions of Kenyans who
flock its corridors.
Investigations
into the horrors experienced by female patients in the hospital are also timely
and a test for the new director of Criminal Investigations Department, George
Kinoti.
Independent
and transparent investigations by the CID are the first step in entrenching a
patient-friendly environment at the hospital.
As
investigations get underway, Kenyans should also give the hospital staff a fair
chance to tell its story. They should not be admonished before they are given
affair hearing and not subjected to the public court.
An
escalated war of words, suspicion and lack of honesty between the hospital and
Kenyans will only serve to pile more misery on the millions of poor Kenyans who
flock the hospital in search of better health-care that they cannot afford in
the costly private hospitals.
