WAJIR—The referral hospital in the larger Habaswein District of Wajir county has remained without electricity since the beginning of the year, a civil society activist has said. Hashim Elmoge said the Level Four facility has not had reliable electricity after the County government of Wajir failed to clear a balance of sh 35, 437 which was due on the 1st of January, 2016.
He added that at least four expectant mothers were forced to deliver with the help of other source of light.
“Resident who come to seek medical help in the facility were turned away, those with life-threatening complication included, due to lack of electricity,” he said.
A spot check by Kulan Post has revealed that the hospital, which has a bed capacity of 24, has no running water, detergents to clean the floor and clothes used by patients. There was also a glaring break down of service delivery and a strong stench of medicine as staff could be seen engaged in a go-slow, perhaps to protest against the negligence.
“The hospital has not received a share of the millions disbursed to the County Hospital and it’s now operating on a zero budget sum and a reliable source from within the management says that Wajir County Headquarters is to blame for the impropriety,” he said.
Health is a devolved function that is shouldered by respective county government. Failure of health service is blamed on the county government. We contacted the the county health minister, Rukima Maalim Kahiye on her mobile phone. She did not pick our calls, nor replied to our text messages.
Hashim blamed the county governor, Ahmed Abdullahi for the woes, saying he is using the Habaswein hospital to blackmail the residents of Wajir South.
“The people and their leaders have refused to give up Habaswein water recourse to Wajir town and this we believe is a way of punishing them to give in to his demands,” he stated. Hashim threatened that he would mobilse the resident to take to the streets of Wajir to register their displeasure over what he termed “mistreatment by the County leadership of Wajir.”
