Stop atrophy of Kenya's precious public hospital

There is a paralysis in services at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) after nurses downed tools on Monday. Nurses union officials argue the strike was inevitable after months of State inaction on concerns over delayed salary payment and unremitted statutory deductions. The nurses are also aggrieved that some of their colleagues are employed as casual workers, which denies them job security and employment benefits. They also decry the heavy workload due to inadequate staffing. 

KNH occupies a central place in the healthcare ecosystem of this region. As the largest referral facility in East and Central Africa, it is where the most desperate cases land as patients get transferred from county hospitals and border towns. It is the institution of last resort for millions of Kenyans, and that is what makes its current situation untenable.

Unfortunately, the hospital has for some time now been groaning under the weight of State neglect. In December 2025, investigations revealed a shortage of blood test reagents, vital drugs, and nutritious food for patients. 

All these were linked to a directive by the National Treasury that starved the hospital of operational funds. This, remarkably, at a facility that generates between Sh40 million and Sh60 million in daily patient collections, yet cannot pay its nurses on time or restock its shelves. The hospital is owed approximately Sh1.58 billion by the Social Health Authority.

In September 2025, the Senate was alarmed enough to order a probe into why critical services like CT scans, dialysis, and radiotherapy at KNH were mostly dysfunctional.

Two murders were reported in KNH's wards last year. Stalled multi-billion-shilling projects, including a paediatric emergency centre and a medical oxygen plant, unerringly point at governance failure. A report by the Auditor General showed that KNH had lost Sh678.4 million through poorly negotiated contracts and underfunded government health programmes.

To be fair, the government has not been entirely absent. Health CS Aden Duale ordered security reforms after a patient died at the hospital in July last year and President William Ruto directed KEMSA to deliver drugs directly to hospitals. These, however, are reactive responses, not solutions.

The bottomline is that KNH must not be allowed to collapse under the weight of bureaucratic indifference. It is not too much to expect those who take care of the sick to be paid salaries on time. What is so hard about remitting their pension contributions and absorbing casual medical workers on permanent terms? 

The government must not only motivate the workers, it should clear the SHA debt owed to KNH, release the operational funds being withheld by the Treasury, and restart stalled infrastructure projects. KNH deserves better. More to the point, Kenyans who depend on it have no alternative, and that is a privilege the State should not abuse.

Kenyans expect to see the same zeal the President recently put into the woes of the private Nairobi Hospital applied at KNH to improve the health of this precious public hospital.