The only cancer machine at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) has broken down, leaving cancer patients desperate.
Patients referred from other parts of the country to KNH were sent away after the only radiotherapy equipment in the public hospital began showing signs of failure.
The hospital's spokesman Simon Ithea said that the only radiotherapy machine in the country's public facilities was handling 100 patients a day rather than the required 50 and was bound to break down due to the overload.
Read also: Man Chains Himself To A Tree To Raise Funds For Purchase of Radiotherapy Machine
Mariamu Hamisi, a stage 3 cervical cancer patient, travelled all the way from her Shanzu home in Kisauni, Mombasa only to be dissapointed when she could not be treated owing to the machine's failure.
“We were given a number and told to keep calling to find out whether it (radiotherapy machine) had started working. But on Tuesday, after our calls went unanswered, we boarded a bus and came back only to be met with the same news,” said Mwanatumu, Mariamu's sister.
Even as cancer prevalence in Kenya stands at 39,000 with more than 27,000 deaths reported per year, the treatment of the killer disease has remained a challenge in Kenya due to limited number of experts and infrastruture.
Although the machines for treating cancer are available at selected private hospitals in the country, reports indicate that average Kenyans cannot afford therapy sessions in those hospitals.
The Ministry of Health had promised to install another radiotherapy machine in June after two others collapsed in March but it is yet to be commissioned.
