With 136 infants dead, MPs want Wamatangi to surrender docket to national government

The paralysis of health sector in Kiambu which has seen death of over 100 infants owing to the strike by doctors took a political twist after Members of Parliament implored the national government to take over. 

The Lawmakers called on the National Government to take over the health functions in the county over a deepening health crisis that has seen 136 children die so far.

Their sentiments came against the backdrop of a revelation that 136 infants had lost their lives in Kiambu County hospitals since the start of the nationwide doctors’ strike which is now in its 127th day.

The six MPs from the county on Thursday decried Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s alleged inability to address the health challenges much to the detriment of patients.

They included Mburu Kahangara (Lari) Alice Ng’ang’a (Thika town), Githua Wamacukuru (Kabete), John Kawanjiku (Kiambaa), Njoroge Kururia (Gatundu North), and John Kiragu (Limuru) who accused Wamatangi of creating a vacuum where leadership should exist, replacing dialogue with diktats, cooperation with coercion, and humility with intransigence.

They were speaking during a press conference within the precincts of Parliament.

“We are calling on the National Government to take over the health function at Kiambu county due to the failure by the Wamatangi administration,” said MP Wamacukuru.

Kawanjiku accused Wamatangi of perfecting PR exercises at the expense of delivering services to Kenyans.

“It is no longer business as usual, Wamatangi should stop the PR exercises and act. He gives the impression that hospitals have drugs but even others who are delivering cannot access services,” he said.

Jointly, the MPs brought to the fore that Wamatangi has failed to engage doctors’ unions to have the medics who have been on strike to return back to work. This, they said, has led to the national government withdrawing the 697 medical intern doctors who had been posted to various Kiambu facilities.

 “Kiambu has not only demonstrated immense incompetence but has shown no willingness to resolve the ongoing stalemate. Devolution was not designed to shield impunity or justify the abandonment of citizens,” stated Kahangara.

“The suffering has already gone on far too long. If the county government cannot protect its people, then the national government must intervene—not tomorrow, not next week, but now. Anything less amounts to complicity in the continued loss of innocent lives,” he added.

Documents revealed that between May and August this year, 68 newborns died at Kiambu Level 5 Hospital, 34 at the Thika Level 5 Hospital while five maternal deaths were recorded during the same period one each at Kihara Level 4 hospital, Ruiru Level 4 and Kiambu Level 5 hospitals, whereas two were recorded at Thika Level 5 Hospital.

The lawmakers explained that facilities such as Kiambu Level 5 and Thika Level 4 Hospitals which were designed to tend to thousands daily, had been reduced to shells of their former selves. According to the MPs, more than 20 mothers have lost their lives during childbirth or from preventable post-delivery complications—cases that would not have turned fatal if basic medical supervision had been available.

“When a devolved function becomes a threat to human life, the nation cannot look away. For the sake of those who live and suffer in Kiambu, there must be an immediate and decisive intervention,” said MP kiragu.

He added “How many people have to die so we can have a conversation like this/This is a matter beyond politics. They governor seems to have no answer or simply does not care.”

MP Alice Ngangá was concerned that despite the county’s infrastructure being paralyzed by the incessant doctor’s strikes, Governor Wamatangi had opted for “an openly confrontational stance marked by threats, intimidation, and public posturing.”

“Despite Kiambu County being home to more than 2.4 million residents who depend on public healthcare services, access to medical care in the county has remained uncertain, dangerous, and in some places nonexistent,” she stated.

Adding, “instead of the county government acknowledging that there is a problem, they keep blaming us on politics, if people can die and no one can even come out to say sorry then it shows they are sick.”