Kenyatta National Hospital turned tormentor to its Patients?

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.