It is 4.45pm on a Tuesday at Kapsabet County Referral Hospital and multiple patients flock the casualty area, majority in critical state. But at the consultation room, patients crowd due to delays caused by shortage of basic supplies such as syringes, cotton wool and antibiotics. Patients have to buy them from private chemists.

At 5.12pm, a patient in his early 30s is brought in by an ambulance. He lies unconscious on the stretcher. Anxious looking neighbours accompanying the patient inform The Standard that he attempted suicide.