Frederick Omondi, whose wife was misdiagnosed with HIV has threatened to sue
Diani Health Centre for compensation.
The family's story was first aired on a local TV channel on Sunday evening.
Speaking to the Star at the Haki Africa offices in Mombasa on Monday, Omondi said the misdiagnosis caused his family immeasurable pain, and almost broke his marriage.
He was accompanied by his wife Esther Mwakazi and their one-year-old son.
He said further tests at Coast General Hospital on September 22 and at Kwale Health Centre on September 26 turned negative.
Lawyer and Haki Africa director Yusuf Abubakar said he has taken up the case and will on Tuesday write to Diani Health Centre to own up to their mistake and compensate the family or face a legal suit.
“This is a clear case of medical negligence, [and] a case of human rights violations” said Abubakar.
He said the facility violated the economic and social rights of the family under Article 23 of the constitution.
Omondi said his pregnant wife was misdiagnosed with HIV on July 20 during an ante-natal visit to the health facility and was put on ARVs, together with their son.
The ARVs, according to Omondi, affected the health of his wife and son, who was put on the drugs despite testing negative for HIV.
“My wife almost committed suicide because of the fights we were having. She also almost lost her pregnancy,” said Omondi.
Haki Africa program officer Francis Auma said they will serve Diani Health Centre with the letter on Tuesday morning and wait for their response within 14 days, failure to which they will move to court.
“We believe this is just a tip of the iceberg. There are many other cases of negligence by, especially, government medical practitioners,” said Auma.
Omondi and Auma called on police to probe the matter saying the action of the medical officers may have been deliberate.
“We suspect this is a commercial venture,” Auma said.
According to the human rights organisation and Omondi, there is a programme where discordant couples are given Sh600 each as allowance.
In the programme, the couples are trained on how to live in harmony and how to treat each other, including having safe sex.
“These kinds of programmes usually attract donor funding,” Auma added.
Kwale health chief officer Kishindo Mwaleso said such cases happen since test kits are never 100 per cent reliable.
Diani Health Centre officials could not be reached for comment.
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