Kisumu denies reports that a roof at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital collapsed

The County Government of Kisumu has said that there is no roof that has collapsed at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH).

This comes as the National Construction Authority (NCA) ordered for the evacuation of patients in a ward at the hospital after a section under construction collapsed.

The section collapsed on Friday evening but no casualties or injuries were reported.

Director Governor's Press Unit Aloice Ager said the ongoing extension of ward 7/8 is one of the ongoing projects at JOOTRH to increase capacity and improve service delivery.

NCA Regional Coordinator Amos Musau said the authority has launched structural investigations to establish what could have caused the section to collapse.

Musau said the lives of the patients beneath the building are key and further risks cannot be taken hence the evacuation.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer George Rae has since confirmed that all the 60 patients who were inward eight had been transferred temporarily to other sections of the hospital.

Rae said they will await a report from NCA after the investigations to determine the next cause of action. "We are operating. The incident has not affected our normal operations at all," he said.

Ager said the construction of the ward will increase the ward capacity at the facility by 100 beds.

 "There was a reported partial collapse of the roof of the ongoing construction wherefore Governor Anyang Nyong'o instructed the County Engineering department to commence immediate investigations around that mishap and report to him within 48 hours," he said.

Ager said the engineers have been on-site and have established that no roof collapsed according to the preliminary report.

He said the contractor was on Monday issued instructions to demolish and redo the concrete gutter at the back of the building which he had not been done according to specifications.

 "The contractor was on Friday doing the demolition of the concrete gutter as earlier instructed and in the process of d about half the length of the concrete gutter collapsed on to the floor," Ager said.

This was because the contractor removed all the supporting wooden props over a larger span instead of doing the demolition systematically.

He noted that the project is being supervised closely and the incident is a result of thorough supervision by the project management team.

Ager said the instructions to construct or demolish is a normal standard practice during project implementation.

The contractor, he noted, can be instructed to rectify work not properly done at any time and stage of the project.

The supervising engineers confirm that the materials used are approved by KEBS and samples of the materials on site are usually taken to the laboratory for testing and none has failed.

The team has also confirmed that the whole building in sound structural health and there should be no cause for alarm. 

Ager reiterated that no one was injured in the incident including those working on site.