A mother whose son went missing from the KNH three years ago has sued the hospital for gross negligence.
Meru businesswoman Innocentia Mukwaitai said her son Eric Njeru was admitted to the hospital on November 21, 2013
after falling ill.
Court papers state Njeru had been undertaking a
Bachelor of Science
in computer technology course at JKUAT.
Mukwaitai said her son went missing a few days after he was hospitalised.
Trouble began late that afternoon when the woman
received a phone call from an unknown person who told her Njeru had been taken to the facility.
Mukwaitai
requested the caller to take her son to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital
and sent him Sh2,000 via M-Pesa for medication.
She said that shortly after, the person called again and told her he had been referred to
Mbagathi district hospital and that they needed more assistance.
The woman said she then called a relative - Mathenge
Wang'ombe - who lives in Nairobi and asked him to check on her son since she was in Meru.
Wangombe later informed her that he took Njeru to Mbagathi hospital
but that they were referred back to Kenyatta National Hospital.
“Later on the same day Wang'ombe called me and informed me he had
taken my son to KNH
and on being examined the doctor directed a head
CT scan be taken," she said.
She said in a sworn affidavit that was filed in court that she sent Sh100,000 for this.
Mukwaitai said her son underwent the scan and was admitted in ward 5B room 6.
The woman said she spoke to Njeru from his hospital bed on November 23 and promised to visit after two days.
But she said she received a phone call from Wang'ombe the next day and learned Njeru was not at the hospital.
She said the man told her he had gone for a visit but that the hospital could not explain where her son was.
Mukwaitai told the court she then travelled to Nairobi and arrived at KNH late on the afternoon of November 24.
She said she made frantic efforts to find her son by seeking help from the hospital's
security department but that this bore no fruits. She said she also visited morgues.
The woman reported the matter to police two days later, placed posters with Njeru's image in
public places but this was in vain.
She said she also
made appeals through Royal Media Services but could not find her son.
Mukwaitai wants KNH held liable for her son's disappearance because he was
legally admitted there.
She is also seeking compensation for loss of livelihood in unquantified amount.