Hospitals are sanctuaries of healing, not slaughterhouses. Yet, recent events at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenya’s largest referral facility, have unveiled a terrifying truth that our public hospitals are no longer safe for the most vulnerable.
The cold-blooded killing of Edward Maingi Ndegwa on July 17, found with his throat slit, is shocking and unacceptable. The revelation that suspected killer Kennedy Kalombotole is linked to a similar murder in the same hospital just five months earlier suggests a systemic failure.
That a known suspect in a previous murder at the facility was allowed within the hospital’s walls and not in police custody exposes a dangerous vacuum of accountability. KNH’s explanation that they were simply obeying the DCI’s request to “hold” the suspect pending investigations does little to justify why a man potentially responsible for a capital offence was being treated as a patient and not a prisoner. This was not merely a lapse. It was gross institutional negligence.
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Equally appalling is the fact that, once again, as in the February killing of Gilbert Kinyua, the hospital’s CCTV cameras were not working. In a facility that handles thousands of patients daily and serves as a national medical referral centre, this amounts to security sabotage. What else has collapsed at KNH?
If a patient can access a knife, sneak it into a ward, and slit the throats of patients in the same hospital, that is a huge security lapse. We are staring at a full-blown security collapse within our health institutions.
During recent anti-government protests, goons stormed into a hospital premises, destroying equipment and endangering staff and patients. When thugs can walk into maternity wards and casualty units with stones and clubs, it further underlines how fragile and exposed our medical institutions have become.
The events reveal how our hospitals are soft targets, poorly protected, ill-equipped, and under no clear security protocol. No one seems truly in charge of safety in these spaces.
While doctors save lives and nurses tend to patients, who guards the gates? Who monitors entry points? Who reviews security footage, or even ensures it’s recording in the first place?
The killings at KNH must be a national wake-up call. We cannot allow hospitals to become hunting grounds for the mentally disturbed, the violent, or the criminally inclined. If we cannot protect a sick person lying helplessly in bed, what hope do the rest of Kenyans have? What happened to the sanctity of human life?
KNH and indeed all hospitals must immediately audit their security systems, install and monitor working CCTV cameras. They must screen all visitors and collaborate with law enforcement on high-risk cases. Mental health assessments and secure holding areas should be standard for patients flagged as a danger to others.
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By Editorial