Hola, Wednesday January 31st, 2018 KNA
A number of projects funded by the national government to rehabilitate the Hola County Hospital in Tana River County have stalled.
The projects that were funded to the tune of Sh200 million from the National Treasury are yet to be completed after the funds got exhausted, County Director of Health Administration Omar Dhadho said on Tuesday.
The stalled projects include a modern maternity wing, two new wards, a kitchen, pavements and walkways among others, whose stalling have given the health facility a worse outlook than it was before the projects commenced.
They are among projects abandoned at various stages of completion after the former county government failed to pay contractors.
It is estimated that the county government owes contractors more than Sh2.1 billion and current governor Dhadho Gaddae Godhana has said he will only pay genuine contractors.
The Sh200 million was given out in two tranches of Sh100 million in 2015 and 2016 respectively and it was a pledge by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he visited the county in 2013.
The foundation stone of the new maternity wing was laid by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta when she launched a Beyond Zero mobile clinic in Hola Town in August 2016.
Mr. Dhadho told journalists at the hospital that all the money that had been availed for the project had been properly utilized, and that the hospital was waiting for a new allocation to pay the contractors and continue with the projects.
“The funds were prudently used but they were not enough, given the amount of work it was supposed to accomplish,” the director said.
“As you are aware, the county is yet to receive its development allocation. When this happens, we hope the projects will be given the first priority,” the director said during an interview.
A tour of the facility by the press established that some equipments leased under the national medical equipment program were not being utilized due to lack of skilled personnel.
Mr. Dhadho said a complete renal unit had been installed at
the hospital but there were no experts to man it. Residents are forced to seek kidney dialysis services in Malindi, Mombasa and Garissa.
He said the hospital authorities were in the process on identifying some nurses to be trained on the use of the machines with a view to reducing referral of kidney cases requiring dialysis.
