Interior CS Kithure Kindiki on Friday announced that the long wait for the first NPS-owned hospital is over, it will be commissioned in March 2023.
The National Police Service has for decades dreamt of constructing its own hospital to cater for serving and retired personnel.
Speaking on Friday, Kindiki said the hospital will cater for all police officers who will be injured while in the line of duty.
“Officers injured on duty will be taken to three hospitals built for NPS and Prison in the country. One of them is the Border Police Hospital in Kanyonyo, which will be opened in three months,” Kindiki said.
The CS noted that the facility will also offer counselling services to the police.
NPS has on a yearly basis since 2000 advertised tenders for the construction of the facility probably in Nairobi even as their personnel continued to get injured and others die due to lack of proper medical attention.
Each junior officer contributed Sh50 and in 2020 when the Administration Police Service started building its own 160-bed hospital to cater for its personnel.
The services use a welfare fund collected for almost a year to kick-start the project that will be completed this year.
The hospital is under construction at the Border Patrol Unit campus in Kanyonyo, Kitui county.
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta toured the upcoming facility in November 2020 and pledged to have the hospital completed this year in addition to increased investment in the service.
During the visit, he expressed admiration for how the service had managed to build the facility and urged others to emulate them.
The construction started when APS Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Gabow and his team met and decided to contribute funds for the project through the personnel.
Gabow said their move will pay soon when the hospital starts operations. He said they are using APS personnel as masons, plumbers and even architects, which is cheaper.
“We use our own personnel for the work. We have also been getting help from National Youth Service with their excavators,” he said.
They have been sourcing construction materials from Thika, Nairobi, Machakos and Naivasha.
The hospital was initially meant to attend to officers injured on the frontline, especially at the Kenya-Somalia border but now officials say all personnel even those from other places including Nairobi will be referred there.
NPS has been taking their injured personnel to the Kenya Defence Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi and private facilities. The KDF hospital is at times overwhelmed because it is small.
When completed, the police hospital will be a huge relief for the service.
