EXCLUSIVE: How CEO 'Stole' Sh4 Million Gov't Hospital Machine

The Sh4 Million anaesthesia machine stolen from a maternity theatre ward at the Chuka Level Five Hospital in Tharaka-Nithi County has been recovered.

The machine was found in a house at Mwiki in Kasarani constituency, Nairobi, two weeks after it mysteriously disappeared from the hospital.

Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a source privy to the investigations disclosed that Charles Oyalo, CEO Chuka District Hospital, was behind the robbery and had hired two young men in Chuka Town to take the machine to his car on the night of the incident.

Our source further revealed that the evil plan came to light after one of the hired men realised that the CEO had short-changed them by only paying them Sh3000 yet the equipment was worth millions.

“One of the young men decided to betray him (Mr Oyalo) because he had not paid them well and they later realised that the machine they were carrying the previous night was very expensive,” the source stated.

According to the source, the machine was to be sold to a doctor in Nairobi, but the detectives recovered it in time.

"There was a doctor who was to buy the machine, he owns a clinic in Komarock," the source revealed.

Mr Oyalo together with the clinic doctor were arrested while the machine was taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) offices in Nairobi.

Tharaka-Nithi Governor Samuel Ragwa stated that the equipment would be transported back to the hospital on Thursday.

“I am happy that the machine has been recovered intact and will be delivered back to hospital and the suspects taken to court,” Ragwa was quoted by the Nation.

Mr Ragwa maintained that the theft was an inside job carried out by an organised group of people.

Read Also: Sh4 Million Hospital Machine Disappears

Ragwa had earlier termed the incident as a sabotage to his efforts of improving the health sector in the County.

“How comes this machine was stolen just a day after it was installed in the newly constructed maternity theatre and other equipment are intact?” The governor wondered.

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