The Senate Health Committee, chaired by
Jackson Mandago (Uasin Gishu), had earlier, in their investigations, visited
hospitals in Machakos, Makueni and Kitui.
As is to be expected, the hospitals are in a terrible state of disrepair, some virtually falling apart.
Cracked floors, broken furniture, peeling paint, leaking ceilings and overcrowded wards are a common feature.
The hospitals pose a health hazard to
patients and staff because of exposed cables and, worse, asbestos roofs, which
pose a serious environmental and even occupational danger.
At the Kakamega County Referral
Hospital,
65 mothers shared 45 beds in the labour ward. They also unearthed a trend in
Bungoma in which patients from Uganda have jammed the hospital and crowded out
Kenyan taxpayers.
Governors like to remind all and sundry that health is a devolved function and that they are capable of carrying out one of the most key responsibilities of any government, but the evidence points to a duty they are desperately scrambling to understand.
Perhaps it is time that MPs revived the Building Bridges Initiative proposal to create a health commission to manage hospitals and the doctors and nurses that run our health services.
