Electric power at the Busia Referral Hospital was Monday disconnected over an unsettled bill of Sh500,000, paralysing services at the health centre.
The hospital turned to the back up generator but it ran out of fuel forcing the workers to turn away patients as they waited to get fuel.
Workers at the hospital said they were forced to look for an alternative to save children who were in incubators with the worst hit departments being the nursery for pre- mature babies, X-ray, theatre, and mortuary.
A source speaking to the Daily Nation also revealed that patients had to sleep in the dark on Tuesday following the switching off of the generator after it started producing sparks.
The hospital's Medical Superintendent Janerose Ambuchi expressed that the hospital had been unable to continue with operations after the power was cut, urging the County Administration to intervene.
“The hospital serves many people and our generator cannot handle this. We ask the county government to settle the debt.” She said.
Kenya Power Busia branch manager Samuel Oketch stated that the County Government had been notified over the outstanding bill two weeks earlier.
This comes just days after former National Hospital Insurance Fund chairman Richard Muga and Chairman of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board Prof George Magoha asked that county referral hospitals be run by the national government as State corporations, saying that the Counties were overwhelmed by management of the health sector.
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