The Baringo County Referral Hospital in Kabarnet town could be closed over poor sanitation and noncompliance with environmental regulations.
Officers from the National Environment Management Authority on Thursday expressed shock at how the facility disposes of its waste. They made an impromptu visit.
“We have ordered the officers in charge to do something immediately to correct the situation within seven days, failing which they will be arrested and prosecuted and the hospital shall be closed,” Nema national deputy director Betty Nzioka said.
She took issue with the facility’s poorly managed lagoon, which discharges raw waste downstream. The filth ends up in Kiberenge spring whose water is used by residents.
Syringes and bloodstained bandages were carelessly dumped in shallow ditches within the compound. The hospital serves more than 2,000 patients a day and was established in the 1920s. Nema says it has been operating without an effluent discharge licence — a mandatory requirement.
By poorly disposing of its waste, it is endangering the lives of a huge population living in the environs. They are exposed to the risk of contracting typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea, and amoeba.
“You’re acting like real murderers because this seems to be a well-calculated plan by you, being well-trained medical practitioners, to infect the common people out there with preventable diseases so they may flock back to your facility for treatment, and then you can charge exorbitant service fees,” an angry Nzioka told the staff.
“If this is the case, then people should be treated for free here.”
She noted that the hospital has a malfunctioning incinerator and that means biomedical materials, glasses and syringes are not reduced to ashes as they should before disposal.
“A modern incinerator should operate with high temperatures of 850 to 1100 degrees Celcius but the ancient one available here seems totally inactive as it leaves the residues just coated with some black sooth,” the Nema official said.
She suggested that the facility share an incinerator with a nearby hospital as they plan to buy one.
Nzioka was accompanied by South Rift Regional director of environment Mirriam Kioko, Baringo Nema environment director Josiah Nyandoro and police officers.
County chief Health officer Gideon Toromo was almost arrested after hospital boss Stephen Kalya vanished from his office. Toromo said he wished the Nema officers would have served them earlier with a notice so they could prepare well.
“We could have even arranged for a better meeting. In fact, as we speak, even my department executive Mary Panga is not around,” he said.
The Nema bosses, however, cautioned that it is not their business to seek appointments or hold meetings with offenders as they execute their work.
“Anyway, we really acknowledge the fact our hospital is in bad shape, but, as you said, a week is enough for us. We shall do something, after which you are free to take any legal action against us,” the chief officer humbled himself.
Besides being served with a seven-day improvement order by Nema, the facility was ordered to apply for afresh EDL and pay Sh120,000 — Sh20,000 annually backdated to 2014. It will also pay an application fee of Sh5,000.
Nzioka said noncompliance will attract subsequent arrests, leading to a jail term of two years or fine of between Sh2 million and Sh4 million, or both. They also served another improvement order for the littered Kabarnet town dumpsite where dogs and cows were spotted feasting on waste. Also raided were Moi Teachers College, Seretunin, and the Kabarnet Prisons.
(Edited by F'Orieny)
