Wrangles hurting us: Nairobi Hospital board admits

A parallel board at The Nairobi Hospital has acknowledged that prolonged leadership wrangles and legal battles have significantly disrupted the institution’s operations, even as it reassured stakeholders of continued service delivery.

In a press briefing on Thursday, the board admitted that key governance processes, including Annual General Meetings (AGMs), have repeatedly been stalled by “last-minute court actions.”

According to the board, the disputes, largely driven by factions within the hospital’s leadership and membership, have also seen critical board decisions subjected to multiple legal challenges, creating uncertainty in the hospital’s management structure.

“At one point, the hospital was blocked from undertaking critical capital expenditure, including borrowing to replace essential medical equipment,” said the board chair, Barckley Onyambu. 

The move, they observed, risked undermining the hospital’s capacity to maintain high standards of healthcare services. Similarly, Dr Onyambu noted that the courts have also continued to award the staff who were, at some point, dismissed, “huge amounts of money,” which adversely affects hospital operations. 

“These restrictions, however, were later lifted after the courts ruled that the cases filed were repetitive and constituted an abuse of the judicial process,” he said. 

Their sentiments come days after another parallel board chairman, Dr Job Obwaka and three board officials were charged in court with offences relating to their roles as directors of the Kenya Hospital Association Limited, the entity that operates the Nairobi Hospital.

Among other individual counts, the four were also jointly charged with failing to lodge financial statements for the company with the Registrar within the stipulated timelines. 

State interference in the facility’s saga has also been reported, with President William Ruto arguing that he “will not let the hospital go down under my watch.” 

It is reported that some sections of senior consultants approached the Head of State to intervene and resolve the conflicts. 

However, Dr Onyambu's team distanced themselves from the group, saying the five doctors “took advantage of their access to the Patron” and that they did not represent the hospital’s leadership structure, terming their actions as “self-serving pursuits intended to destabilise governance.” 

“Their views are biased and not representative of the prevailing situation of the Hospital. Some of them are deeply conflicted and actively compete with the business of the Hospital,” said Onyambu. 

Despite the challenges, the board said they are keen on addressing the governance issues that they said began a decade ago, even as they maintained that it remains undisrupted, blaming some of the problems on previous office holders.

“Over the last ten years, the Hospital has faced recurring governance challenges. Many of these stem from decisions made by previous boards that weakened internal controls and exposed the institution to conflicts of interest and undue influence,” he said.  

They defended the facility’s financial position and operations, stating that the facility posted Sh12.8 billion in revenue in 2024, with a monthly revenue averaging about Sh1 billion.

The hospital’s CEO, Felix Osano, dismissed as misleading and inaccurate some figures circulating in the public, noting that reports of a Sh4.2 billion loan are incorrect and that the 2025 deficit has narrowed significantly to Sh815 million. 

“The claim that Sh9.1 billion is missing is not factual. The audited position reflects a Sh2.214 billion deficit in 2024, largely driven by legacy and one-off adjustments that have since been addressed. The Hospital continues to meet its obligations while managing receivables, including Sh2.4 billion owed, largely by public healthcare schemes,” he said.

Dr Onyambu reiterated that: “What is being presented in the public domain as an institutional collapse is, in fact, a governance matter, and it has unfortunately played out in the public domain in a manner that risks undermining confidence in a critical national healthcare institution.”