The Kirinyaga County Assembly Committee on Health stormed the Kerugoya referral hospital on Wednesday following reports of the pathetic situation the facility was in.
The committee led by its Chairman Fredrick Bundi expressed disgust at the rot in the Wards especially the
maternity one which had not been cleaned since last week after the County Government sacked over 200 casual workers.
After an extensive inspection of the hospital, the Committee held a crisis closed door meeting with the County
Chief Officer for Health, Dr. Stanley Muriithi.
The meeting was also attended by the County Director of Public Health Evans Kago whom the Committee said was
expected to have closed down the hospital due to the high risk of an epidemic explosion.
“With the Wards not cleaned for about a week now especially the maternity one and the Mortuary due to lack of casual employees to carry out the job, we fear for a possible explosion of unhygienic environment related diseases,” Bundi told a hastily convened press conference at the facility.
The committee later retreated to the Assembly chambers to compile its findings which it promised to make public
soonest possible.
Dr. Muriithi on the other hand did not talk to the media since it was only Governor Anne Waiguru or her Deputy
Peter Ndambiri who were authorized to speak to the press.
Last week, the county government dismissed the 200 casual workers who were offering services at the facility,
claiming the cleanup was meant to bring down the county governments wage bill.
A memo by the County Secretary, Joe Muriuki said they took the action to contain the wage bill which he said was
unsustainable.
Reports from the county had it that the county was to save Sh.4 million per month and an annual saving of Sh.40 million from the laid out workers.
When contacted, an assistant Director Communication department, Nicolas Muriuki said the situation was temporaly as the county government was making arrangements to have casuals transferred from the environment department to take over places left by the dismissed workers.
By Irungu Mwangi
