Nairobi county health committee has opposed a recommendation by the Senate to temporarily close Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital over allegations of negligence.
Led by its chairman Mountain View MCA Maurice Ochieng, the legislatures argued that the recent inquiry by the senators could be done without disrupting services at the facility.
"We support the senate work's and the push for justice for the affected families but we oppose any attempt to close down the facility," he said on Thursday.
Ochieng also argued that Mama Lucy Hospital served millions of patients not only in Nairobi but from neighbouring counties of Machakos, Kajiado and Kiambu.
Mama Lucy Hospital serves more than 2.1 million residents of Eastlands.
Early this week, Senators called for a temporary closure of Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital to bring sanity into the state-owned health facility.
This was after the senators met with Robert Omondi, the man who lost his wife after delivering twins at the facility.
Omondi’s wife was reportedly said to have bled for more than six hours without being attended to.
His sentiments to close down the hospital were echoed by Senator Raphael Chimera and his Kitui counterpart Enoch Wambua.
As a result, Omondi's family through their lawyer Bonventure Otieno called for the closure of the facility, of what the senators have termed the hospital as a 'death chamber'.
Senator Wambua said a time had come to infuse dignity in human life and put things right at the facility to send a strong message to all health facilities that human life is dignified and cannot be bought.
He noted health is a devolved function hence county governments should be held accountable for the happenings in their facilities but said the senate committee is tasked to ensure sanity in the sector is restored.
