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The Senator said a health facility has been closed down after electricity was disconnected
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She said the county lacks functional ambulances and does not remit statutory deductions to NHIF.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
A big clash looms between Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo and Senator Fatuma Dullo over the state of health facilities in the county.
This is after the Senate Health Committee summoned Guyo to explain the state of the Isiolo County Referral Hospital mortuary.
Guyo had been invited to appear before the panel chaired by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago on Thursday, but failed to show up.
Dullo had sought answers regarding the mortuary.
Instead, the county chief, through County Secretary Dade Boru, sent written responses explaining the condition of the mortuary.
“I direct that the governor appears on Tuesday [because] the matter we want the county to explain the state of the mortuary,” Mandago said.
But, in what appears to be a looming heated exchange between the two leaders, Dullo who had showed up for the meeting, hit at Guyo’s administration for running down healthcare facilities.
According to Dullo, ‘nothing’ is happening in the county on matters of health.
“From the statement, you can tell the matters are weighty but the county seems not serious. I want this committee to help the people of Isiolo because nothing is happening,” she said.
The Senator said a health facility has been closed down after electricity was disconnected.
She said the county lacks functional ambulances and does not remit statutory deductions to NHIF.
“Pregnant women have been forced to walk for several kilometres because subcounty hospitals are not functioning,” she said.
She invited the committee to visit Isiolo for fact-finding.
But in a quick rejoinder, Governor Guyo, described the Senator as a 'perennial liar'.
“It's not true that our hospitals are not working. Our facilities are operating normally. If anything, they are now better than I found them,” he told the Star.
“The senator has become a perennial liar. I invite the committee to Isiolo. The MPs should come and see what we have done.”
Two months, Guyo and Dullo clashed over the state of the mortuary after a senate committee's visit.
The Star's tour of the Isiolo County Referral Hospital, which hosts the morgue, showed a massive face-lift.
The county was building a new accident and emergency wing complete with an Intensive Care Unit, High Dependency Unit, renal unit, pharmacy and radiology units.
Isiolo is also modernising and expanding the hospital’s mortuary at the cost of Sh10 million.
“We awarded a Sh10 million tender to service and expand the existing machines and incorporate new ones that can accommodate 16 bodies,” Medical Services chief officer Abdirahman Ibrahim said.
County Secretary Boru said Isiolo County Referral Hospital mortuary has 33 unclaimed bodies, yet the facility has the capacity of accommodating only 12.
“Over the years with the growth of population, the facility has been handling bodies beyond its capacity occasioning the need to expand it and overhaul the existing cooling system,” he said.
“To handle all bodies that need preservation in the area, the morgue also uses other forms for preservation like embalmment with formalin.”
Boru said the facility is the only public mortuary in the area serving Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu and part of Meru.
“Overcrowding has been occasioned by the need for the hospital to stop receiving bodies originating from outside the facility to ease pressure on the morgue,” he said.
There are 56 health facilities in Isiolo, including one Level 5 and two Level 4 Hospitals.