KNH cancer machine must file a statement with the police

The Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) isn’t any other healthcare point of call. It used to serve the high and mighty and we even named it after King George VI. While growing up, many Kenyans were made to believe that KNH was the place where all hospitals in East and Central Africa travelled to whenever they fell sick.

On paper, KNH was designed to be the way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, and light in the darkness for those suffering from diseases that witchdoctors run away from. It even has a helipad to fly in ambulances stuck on Mombasa Road.

But the news coming in lately paints a picture of a facility that not only hasn’t kept its promise but also dimmed the light on cancer patients travelling to the capital for their last hope at a second chance in life.

A radiotherapy machine that cancer patients have relied on for cancer treatment broke down before Kenyans went for Christmas, and cancer patients have returned to find the machine still sleeping at a junk corner as it waits for a technician to fly in from India to slap it back to work.

We have no problem with the KNH engineering department trusting India with their spanners. Kenya and India have longstanding diplomatic ties. Their coolies arranged the Kenya-Uganda railway, made kiosk ownership fashionable and taught us how to chew red pepper in front of our in-laws without shedding a tear.

Cancer patients

We would’ve given them an A for Accomplishment had they taught the immediate former Kiambu governor how to pronounce parallelogram during his studies in Punjab.

The reason we’re up in arms is that it’s not fair to keep burdening India with our health problems when they also have theirs to sort out. We’ve always been told that the quality of our local engineers hasn’t been at the desired level because of factors like insufficient funds, Covid-19 and soil erosion. They would even have blamed the dog for eating their homework had the dogs not denied claims that the country had gone to them. 

Every year, Kenyan universities graduate hundreds of student engineers to go panel-beat cars to keep quiet, and help the Jubilee government complete the building of the historic stadium in Kamariny.

Kenyans have refused to believe that KNH can’t find even one engineer in that annual pool who can successfully get the machine roaring back to work. Cancer patients lining up for chemotherapy don’t just wake up in the morning and trek to faraway Kenyatta National Hospital for their sessions.

It takes them months of planning; how they’ll travel to and from Nairobi, which affordable lodging that isn’t on top of a bar they’ll stay in, and how to get to the KNH gate without stepping on hawkers who’ve invaded pedestrian walks.

Cancer treatment

Patients who’ve sold their only village land in order to access cancer treatment aren’t people you can play around with the way you want. These people are desperate to stay alive and would do anything to live a day longer, including storming the Office of the President carrying things in their hands while asking him to come out because they only want to talk.

If the intention of the KNH facility heads was to set up a confrontation between patients, who have nothing to lose, and the President, who’s doing his best to secure his legacy, then they should be informed that Posta Kenya haven’t misplaced their letter. It’s now time for the President to look for postage stamps and reply.

The radiotherapy machine at KNH must be made to record a statement at the KNH police station as to why it chose to break down in the middle of a pandemic.

Anyone who’ll be found to have colluded with the machine to have it sleep a little longer must be made to reimburse the waiting costs incurred by those patients, on top of being sent home to come back with their parents.

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