The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KPDMU) has temporarily shuttered Muteithania Hospital in Kawangware, Nairobi, due to non-compliance with health regulations.
The facility’s closure, according to KPDMU CEO David Kariuki, came about as a result of a visit from county and Union officials around three weeks ago.
“I would like to confirm that we have closed the Muteithania health institution in Nairobi’s Kawangware neighborhood due to non-compliance with requirements.
“We received poor outcomes of patients who had visited that clinic,”
He added that three weeks prior, several regulatory authorities had visited the facility, inspected it, and then made suggestions and a partial closure.
Kariuki claims that following the partial closure, they were informed that the facility had carried on as usual and without permission.
On Wednesday, KPDMU police, DCI officers, and Nairobi County officials revisited the hospital and took two officers into custody.
“We have closed down the facility for not complying with standards and for not complying with the notice to close,” Kariuki told reporters.
“And secondly, for using unqualified staff, and thirdly, for the poor outcomes for which we are continuing with investigations, the facility will remain closed as long as investigations are ongoing.”
Two incidents that brought attention to the facility—one involving a lady who bled excessively after giving birth, and another involving a pregnant patient who fainted and died at the hospital—are what is at the center of the controversy.
The mother who came to give birth at the hospital lost her child and also experienced postpartum hemorrhage, according to Crystal Mutegi, the assistant proprietor of the hospital.
She introduced herself to the media on Wednesday as “Naitwa Crystal Mutegi, I’m the assistant proprietor of Muteithania Nursing Home and Maternity.”
“Kuna mama alikuja hapa kuzaa, akazaa, mtoto akakufa na yeye wakati tulona amepata Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), tukampeleka Kenyatta ambapo alikufa.”
She said that after the incident, several people, including authorities from Nairobi County, visited the facility and carried out an examination before making several recommendations for modifications, such as the installation of fresh ventilation and partitions.
“Mara tunaona watu wanakuja, mara county government ikakuja ikazunguka, ikaangalia ikatwambia zile vitu tunafaa kurekebisha, tukarekebisha,” she stated.
“Wakakuja tena wakasema tuweke ventilation na tuweke partition and all that and we did it.”
Mutegi, who interpreted the hospital’s closure as malicious, claims that the KPDMU shut down the establishment even after carrying out all of the suggested modifications.
“Lakini badala ya kukuja kuangalia kama tumefanya hayo yote, wakakuja wakafunga hospitali wakasema hatuna license,”
“Wameonwa na hao wangine wanataka kutu intimidate ndio tufunge,”
