Ruto to hand back hospital to KU

The state is planning to revert Kenyatta University Hospital to the university, the Star has learnt.

Kenyatta University vice chancellor Prof Paul Wainaina – who triumphantly resumed office on Thursday after he was ousted in July – said he is “very sure” the move will succeed.

This marks the bitterest part of his fight with the hospital chairperson and former KU vice chancellor Prof Olive Mugenda.

However, the university is expected to put up structures and prove it can manage the hospital, after which President William Ruto will issue an executive order revoking former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s order which turned the hospital into a parastatal on January 15, 2019.

Attorney General Justin Muturi is said to be in support of the move, an official at the Ministry of Health told the Star.

The Star contacted Muturi but he declined to confirm the plans.

“Please direct your question on that to the relevant ministry,” he said.

The multibillion-shilling hospital was founded by KU in 2010 when Prof Mugenda was the university boss.

It sits on 100 acres, part of the university's 1,000 acres.

Prof Wainaina, who became KU VC in January 2018, opposed Uhuru’s move to make Kenyatta University, Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital a parastatal and took the matter to Parliament, where the health committee ruled in his favour in November last year.

He was suspended in July this year when he again opposed Uhuru’s decision to hive off 410 acres from KU and give it to the hospital, the World Health Organisation, Africa CDC and squatters in Kamae.

On Thursday, he spoke with vigour and newly-found authority.

“I'm sure we are going to be able to have the hospital back again, not through declarations but through the same system that we have for resolving issues,” he told the university community.

Prof Wainaina appears to have found favour with President Ruto’s administration after he was recently appointed to the task force to review the Competency-Based Curriculum.

“A hospital which we actually constructed up to the end and the hospital was taken away from us, except for the name. The name remains but the hospital, four years after we completed the hospital, our medical students have not been able to step in there. So the same way with the good offices of the new government, we are asking our hospital back,” he said.

The Star contacted the hospital chairperson Olive Mugenda but she did not respond.

However, last year she told the Star the KU management would be unable to run both the university and the hospital efficiently.

“It's very difficult to run both. I have done both now and I noticed you cannot run a university, and also run the hospital, it is very difficult. In hospitals, the decision-making process needs to be very fast. It's more efficient when you have a separate board and a separate management. And that would not have happened if it was run by the university,” she said in an interview with Star in October last year.

“So that separation was good. But that does not remove the original purpose of affiliating the hospital with universities. The only thing that is different is management as a parastatal which, to me, is more efficient, and quicker in terms of decision-making,” she added.

Prof Mugenda also said KU and the hospital needed to conclude an MoU to allow ­medical students in the hospital.

“We have a committee made up of colleagues from this hospital and also from KU, who have been meeting to get the modalities of how the students should come. So it's just that that committee needs to finalise the procedures, the modality, so the students can come even tomorrow,” she said.

On Thursday, Prof Wainaina promised the medical students they will go to the hospital once the university takes over management.

“I'm sure we are going to get that hospital. It's very painful. We worked for the hospital. When it was finished, it was taken away from us and we feel terrible when our students are not able to use the kind of facilities that are there. That has happened for four years. So I'm telling the students, you're going to make sure that you're going to the facilities,” he said.

Prof Wainaina said that from the 410 acres President Kenyatta’s government wanted, they will only give 30 acres to the squatters in Kamae.

The government had directed 190 acres to go to squatters.

But Wainaina alleged most of the land was actually being grabbed.

“There are some poor squatters who are occupying 30 acres. Both myself and my council members we are saying we don't want to be the ones to assist people to steal public land. We are against people who are claiming that they are squatters. If you go there, you see skyscrapers belonging to the so-called squatters.”

He told the World Health Organization it will not get 30 acres for its emergency hub. It will, however, not be kicked out of the land.

The Emergency Hub will oversee a variety of subregional activities in Eastern Africa, including maintaining stockpiles of medical and logistical supplies and stationing WHO staff to ensure quick deployment during emergencies.

WHO is contributing US $47 million in funding for the implementation of the regional initiative.

Prof Wainaina said 30 acres is too much land for the hub.

He said KU already hosts other global organisations such as UN Women, Confucious Institute, and USAID and they do not ask for title deeds.

“So we felt that it was not really fair for them to ask for 30 acres of land. They can use the space. They are serving the nation, they are serving KU and therefore we cannot refuse to give them space. The issue of having a title is where we felt, it was not right,” he said.

Prof Wainaina returned after the university council that sacked him, headed by Prof Crispus Kiamba, resigned on Tuesday.

The old council, headed by Prof Shem Migot-Adholla, is expected to return to running the university beginning Friday this week.