Relief as new oxygen plant arrives in Kakamega 

A Sh100 million medical oxygen equipment Kakamega County imported from France in July 7 this year was finally delivered on Thursday.

Investigations by the Nation last month disclosed that the equipment was still stuck at the port because of a tax dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority, which was demanding Sh8 million. The importer cleared the bill last week.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya had earlier expressed disappointment that the national government was taxing medical equipment in the middle of a devastating Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is a shame that at this time of the Covid-19 pandemic we are being taxed on machines that are meant to save many lives,” he said.

KRA, in an official response to the Nation, explained that waiving taxes in such instances was not their jurisdiction, and the agency said it advised the governor to take up the matter with the Treasury.  

Low saturation levels

Speaking in a telephone interview on Monday, the importer, Bernard Karoro of Total Hospital Solutions, assured the public that the plant will be up and running in one week. It has a capacity to pump 1,000 litres per minute.

“As I told you earlier, I am bound to pay taxes like any other Kenyan. The issue has been all about insurance because I needed a surety. I cleared the Sh8 million in full and KRA released it at around 7pm Wednesday,” he said.

“I have contracted five biomedical engineers who will get it up and running in no time, and in fact we started unpacking the machine today.”

An elated Martin Nandwa, a biomedical engineer at KCGH, acknowledged that the need for medical oxygen at the hospital was high because of rising Covid-19 cases and referrals from counties such as Nyanza.

“We have a lot of patients coming in and most of them have very low saturation levels that need a very high-flow supply of oxygen to them,” he said.

KCGH has a six-bed ICU for Covid-19 patients and all of them are hooked to oxygen.

Production capacity

KCGH also has a 10-bed ICU, which was not in use because of an oxygen supply hitch, though Mr Nandwa said they were working to resolve the problem.

KCGH is still procuring medical oxygen from outside sources.

“The current Covid-19 patients consume much more oxygen than the previous cases. We have ended up procuring more oxygen from HewaTele in Siaya because we have an oxygen plant that has a production capacity of 300 litres per minute and Covid-19 patients who come here need 20 litres per minute per patient,” he said in a previous interview.

A nurse at KCGH, who sought anonymity, told the Nation that things were much better.

“When you first highlighted our oxygen problems we were at a really bad place, but immediately after, we saw them bring in new Covid-19 testing kits as the others had expired, and they have been buying oxygen and trying to ensure there’s no shortage, but we hope the plant will be here soon,” she said. 

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