Vice Chancellor Paul Wainaina has dismissed allegations that Kenyatta University Hospital will be turned into a state corporation managed by a board of directors.
He said on Thursday the claims in a section of the media are misleading.
Media reports on Wednesday showed that the facility will be renamed Kenyatta University Referral Hospital, which will be headed by a new chief executive officer.
"The story is misleading, erroneous and factually wrong," Prof
Wanaina said in a statement.
On
Tuesday, the parliamentary Committee on Health chaired by Murang'a woman representative Sabina Chege visited the hospital.
The panel recommended that the Treasury allocates KU Sh1.6 billion to trigger the release of
an undisbursed
loan from the Chinese government.
Wainaina said he is not aware of the decision allegedly made after Health CS Sicily Kariuki chaired an inter-ministerial meeting Tuesday.
The story suggested that CSs Amina Mohamed (Education) and Henry Rotich (Treasury) and officials from KU led by Prof Wainaina were present at the meeting.
Wanaina said they are opposed to the hospital being turned into a state corporation as it does not fit with the original concept as a teaching facility.
"Instead, we have proposed that the hospital be run as a subsidiary of the university complete with its own board of directors which can be effected under Section 3 of the State Corporation Act," he said.
Construction of the hospital was commissioned on October
7, 2011, as a Vision 2030 project during former President Mwai Kibaki's tenure.
It has a bed capacity of 600,
21 beds in the Intensive Care Unit, eight operating rooms, an emergency room, a dialysis unit and imaging equipment.
"When it begins operating, the hospital will be the only Molecular Imaging Centre (MIC) in the region, outside of Egypt and South Africa. The
equipment is used for detecting and treating cancer at an early stage," Wanaina said.