Hospitals in three counties get free wheelchairs

Mossbets Marketing Manager Ken Ong’ute (right) hands over wheelchairs to Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital officials on Saturday. [Kennedy Mureithi, Standard]

Patients with mobility challenges admitted in health facilities in Meru, Nakuru and Kisii counties have been given free wheelchairs.

Speaking in Nakuru, promoters of the initiative said the donations target six counties in the next three months.

“Under our Uradi na Mossbets programme, we reach out to communities to help them in various impactful ways. We donated wheelchairs in Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital and we are here today at Menengai Dispensary to donate more,” Mossbets Marketing Manager Ken Ong’ute said.

He added: “We hope that the wheelchairs wil assist patients and lessen their suffering.”

Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) Director of Clinical Services James Kinyua said the wheelchairs they received will help in moving patients around the hospital.

“We are really honoured to receive these wheelchairs. It has been our prayer to get trolleys and wheelchairs. We want to thank Mossbets from the bottom of our hearts for coming through for us,” Dr Kinyua said. He added that MTRH is opened to strategic partnerships that will help in providing services and facilities that the hospital lacks.

“We welcome partners who have really shown interest in helping not only the hospital, but also our patients. We are a public hospital and we really serve many people in this region and sometimes our facilities are overstretched,” he added.

Esther Mwangi, a nurse at Menengai Dispensary in Nakuru County, said the wheelchair donation reached them at the right time because the facility has a new maternity wing.

“We used to have one wheelchair in this facility but it broke down. The donation has come at the right time because we now have a new maternity wing. These wheelchairs will help us move our mothers around and we are really greatful to Mossbets for donating them to us,” Mrs Mwangi said.

Kisii Special School Principal Clive Orina thanked Mossbets for donating a braille machine that will help differently able students to study.

“We want to most sincerely thank Mossbets for donating braille machine to us. This machine will help visually impaired students to learn,” Mr Orina said.

Meanwhile, People living with disabilities (PLWD) in northern Kenya have appealed to President William Ruto to consider them for job opportunities in his government.

Through their chairman Hafid Maalim Ibrahim, the PLWDs claimed the Kenya Kwanza administration had neglected them.

“It is clear in this country and particularly in northern Kenya that we are a disadvantaged lot on many fronts. When it comes to job opportunities, education and even access to loans from government institutions; we are hardly considered," he said.