Thika hospital to get Sh500m facelift

By ERIC WAINAINA

KIAMBU COUNTY: Thika General Hospital is set to benefit from a Sh500 million facelift that will see it have modern facilities. This comes shortly after the hospital elevated to a Level Five health facility.

Recently, Mount Kenya University (MKU) undertook a Sh300 million projects that saw the facility become the only public hospital in the county with a modern human anary (laboratory) and mortuary.

Kiambu County Secretary in charge of health Dr Jonah Mwangi said the new facility will not only be used for preserving bodies but will also see the hospital become a teaching and referral centre for the university (MKU).

ADDITIONAL SH50 MILLION

Kiambu County will spend an additional Sh50 million to equip the facility named after the late General Kago who was a freedom fighter.

With the old hospital mortuary, which was built in 1940s, the hospital had a capacity to hold on 24 bodies despite serving people from Kiambu, Murang’a, Kirinyaga and some Ukambani regions.

General Kago Funeral Home will have a modern embalmment unit, classrooms and a human anatomy laboratory that can handle 150 bodies.

Last week, MKU board of trustee chairman Simon Nyutu Gicharu handed over the facility to the Kiambu County Government in a ceremony presided over by Governor William Kabogo.

Apart from the funeral home, the Kiambu County Government, in partnership with other financiers, is set to construct a five-storey reproduction health unit.

The design is already out and according to the hospital superintendent Dr Patrick Nyagah, the Sh500 million project will be undertaken in the next three to five years.

The new development is expected to give the facility, which has been grappling with poor infrastructure, a major facelift.

The building will have a maternity wing with a private section with 350 and 50 beds, respectively, and a pharmacy section.

OVERHAUL

Kabogo said the county government would ensure infrastructure in the hospital is overhauled.

“We have plans to give the hospital a major facelift. We will bring down the old houses and replace them with new and modern ones,” Kabogo said during the ceremony.

Kiambu County, he said, would also expand the hospital parking space, which he said was too small considering the number from people who visit the facility.

Thika Hospital joins Gatundu Level Four hospital, which has been undergoing a major facelift since last year. Gatundu hospital’s construction was initiated by the founding president Jomo Kenyatta through donations.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the construction of two modern buildings — one to host an ultra-modern medical wing while the other, a five-storey structure — will serve as the hospital wing.

The modern building will be five storeys, with more than 5,000 square metre building area, four elevators, four operation rooms and 12 ICU beds.

Many government hospitals are characterised by deplorable infrastructure whose construction dates to the pre-independence period.

Many such facilities have buildings which do not befit their status — old, faded paints and even broken fittings, which have gone for years without repair or refurbishment.

This has also contributed to the unending congestion in hospitals.