Outcry as Migori inmate with severe burns taken to hospital two months late

A family in Migori County is now faulting Kendege Prison for keeping their kin without proper medication despite him having sustained severe burns after he allegedly fell in hot porridge.

The inmate who was serving a six-year jail sentence is said to have sustained porridge burns on November 29 and was only taken to Migori Referral Hospital on January 7.

According to the inmate’s mother Caroline Akoth, she only came to know about their son’s condition when she first visited him in prison on December 5.

She tried inquiring why she was not informed when the incident happened and was told that it was being managed at the prison’s dispensary.

“On seeing my son, I was very shocked. I asked the clinical officer at the prison and he told me the burn was not that serious and that is why they placed him at the prison’s dispensary,” Ms. Akoth said.

The visibly worried mother made another trip to the Prison on December 31 where she said she found that her son’s condition had worsened.

However, despite making inquiries and requesting that he be taken to hospital for better treatment, she said the prison declined her request and told her that he was recovering.

On her third visit, she demanded to see the Prison’s boss and questioned why they were not taking him to hospital for proper treatment.

It was after a day of her leaving the prison that she received a phone call from the clinical officer who told her to visit her son at Migori County Referral Hospital.

Akoth who suspects that there is another narrative behind her son sustaining severe burns questioned whether inmates had rights.

She faulted the prison for delaying and keeping her son in prison without proper treatment.

“My son’s health is in a bad state. The doctors here told me that my son is supposed to be transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital due to the burns he sustained,” Akoth said.

Dr. Michael Kibira, the County Plastic Surgeon in Migori pointed out that the inmate suffered 55 per cent burns involving the back, upper limbs and lower limbs.

The doctor who termed the burns as quite severe said he was taken at the facility about two months after suffering burns.

“We are trying to the best we can with the situation as it right now. He came to us suffering from burn sepsis and we are trying to give him some antibiotics, fluids, dressing and pain management. As per now that is what we can manage,” Dr. Kibira highlighted.

He said they were looking into referring the inmate to a facility where there is a burns unit for further management and where he can go for reconstructive surgery.

Kibira who said the inmate’s wounds were infected and the infection was now running in the bloodstream pointed out that he really needed an emergent intervention for him to be able to survive.

“The degree of the burns he sustained were to be handled in a burns unit which is only found in Kenyatta National Hospital. His situation would have been handled better in a burn’s unit,” the doctor remarked.

He said the inmate’s chances of survival were at 50 per cent because of the extent of burns and the level of infections he had.

Currently, the hospital which is having a challenge in getting blood for the inmate is working towards ensuring that they get some blood and do a dressing so that even with the referral, he can be comfortable enough with the travel.

Kendege Prison boss Enock Opapa, who confirmed that the inmate sustained injuries after falling in porridge, said he was among the cooks in the prison.

According to the Prison boss, the inmate was serving porridge before stepping on those that had dropped on the floor and falling into hot porridge.

“There are those that had dropped on the floor as they were serving others. He slid and fell inside the porridge,” Mr. Opapa said.

On his response on why they did not contact the family or take the inmate to hospital, the prison boss in a phone call stated that they have a clinical officer at the station who consulted with Kehancha Hospital, coordinated and said they could manage his case at the prison.

According to the prison boss, they did not involve the family because it was a situation they could handle, and it was only in incidences that when the state could not provide certain medication that they involved their inmates’ families for support.