• Ng'ang'a is said to have visited the facility thrice with the said KRA staff card and got medication.
• KRA HR, dismissed him and told court that he has never worked with the tax man
Image: CLAUSE MASIKA
Drama erupted at a Kibera law court after the head of operation at the Nairobi West Hospital played a CCTV footage showing a patient escaping from hospital without paying.
Ng'ang'a had been charged with obtaining credit by false pretense on January 10, 2017.
In the footage played on Tuesday, Stanley Ng’ang’a , a patient who had leg surgery is seen hoping down the staircase in crutches.
He is then seen talking to Gabriel Otieno, a security guard before proceeding out.
In the footage, the two are seen chatting for a while before Otieno escorts Ng'ang'a out through the hospital's Annex 48 area.
On Tuesday, head of operation at the hospital Daniel Were told court that Ng’ang’a had visited the facility thrice and used his fake KRA medical tag to get treatment leaving a bill of Sh962,000.
“He frequently used a medical staff tag from the Kenya Revenue Authority which he had been using to get into the hospital, get treated and get his way out but this time he was not lucky,” Were told Kibera senior Principal Magistrate Barbara Ojoo.
He said the accused person was admitted for the second time on February 18 and was attended to by Doctor Mogire.
According to Were, the accused person ran away from the hospital after he was operated upon through the help of Otieno.
“Please, Ng’ang’a refresh your mind, you came for treatment not for luxury ask Doctor Mogire who attended to you, your cost was high because you ran away before the bill had been analyzed,” Were told the court.
A witness from Kenya Revenue Authority Fatuma Mohamed said she received a call from Erick Gitonga from the hospital who asked her to help their employer to clear the bill which had accumulated since 2017.
Fatuma said she was informed that the patient had come again at the facility for medications but he had not cleared the bill.
Gitonga, works at the hospital's credit control room.
In his submission he said he was called by Doctor Saini to his office and informed that there was a patient who had been admitted on June 29,2017 and discharged on June 30 but upon discharging he had not cleared the bill.
But in a dramatic cross examination session, Ng’ang’a asked Were to tell him the importance of CCTV Cameras.
“Are CCTV Cameras used to look how thieves steal from the hospital or to prevent theft?, Ng'ang'a posed.
But Were in his response said the cameras are used for both purposes.
Ng’ang’a went ahead to demand to know the number of CCTV cameras, Computers, Control room employees, whether the hospital cameras are connected to the alarm, the number of monitors the hospital has and how far how far the control room is from the gate.
The suspect also demanded to know whether the facility has the IP cameras among other items but Were refused.
“My friend I cannot tell you such confidential information, you want to know such crucial information so that you can come back and steal from the hospital,” Were responded.
Ng’ang’a wondered how a simple light leg surgery could be expensive and asked him to explain.
“Do you mean that my two day admission attracted a bill of thousands of Shillings, does this mean a bed costs Sh88,000?" Ng'ang'a posed.
But Were told him that the cost was so high because he ran away from the hospital while the system had not discharged him hence the increase in the amount.
Ng’ang’a was arrested in Thika after the matter was reported to the police.
The presiding judge directed the case to proceed in January 20.