Health services at Wajir County Referral Hospital paralyzed due to lack of water, electricity

Residents of Wajir County have been left between a rock and a hard place with health services at the Wajir County Referral Hospital paralyzed due to lack of water and electricity.

According to healthcare workers at the hospital, the situation has seen a number of new born babies die.

The hospital's management however indicates that the blackouts experienced are not the norm as it is a problem across Wajir County.

In this hospital, where electricity blackouts are commonplace, it is the shuffling of feet, the mobile phone flashlight beams and perhaps patients’ cries and relatives ranting that will alert you to what is going on around you in the dead of night.

Rashid Mohammed, MCA, Wagberi Ward, said: “There is lack of water in the hospital, there is no electricity, the entire hospital is in shutdown."

According to the hospital's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Bashir Mohammed, the electricity issue in the hospital is a general county problem.

He stated: “I am aware there have been outages like the rest of Wajir, it is a KPLC problem. It is not a norm, there has been power outages before. But sometimes the hospital has been using a backup generator but it also developed a problem because of the outages. I can however confirm that there have been no lives lost.”

Dr. Ahmed Noor, Wajir KMPDU Chair on his part, said: “Babies dying in the NBU…they died because there was no electricity, that is not our fault, we cannot do anything about it. If the generator has been procured, should it not be in place already?”

The last one week, the Wajir Regional Laboratory has been closed; there are no reagents to do the vital tests required, leaving public healthcare services at a standstill.

Banin Hussein, a village elder, said: “Hakuna mtu anafanya operation, hakuna mtu ya kuzalisha, hakuna stima, hakuna popote, na serikali iko wapi? Hakuna ata mtu ya kusafisha, inanuka kama kitu ingine.”

According to the medical workers at the hospital, the conditions are deplorable.

“Healthcare workers have been consistent in working in conditions that are very deplorable, but we will continue serving in such conditions but soon enough we will not be able to continue,” added Dr. Noor.

They stated that efforts to have their issues addressed by one of them saw their colleague physically assaulted by officers alleged to be attached to the county governor.

“We felt that the process that would lead to the apprehension of these officers was going on very very slowly, so as healthcare workers the only language we understand is industrial action,” said the Wajir KMPDU Chair.

Texts and calls to the county's health department and leadership have gone unanswered.

While the day gives reassurance to the Wajir County residents that at least there could be a level of medical assistance accorded to them at the hospital, nightfall brings along a different scenario, one that even the healthcare workers are wary of.