President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday night, July 7, commissioned five new hospitals in Nairobi County.
According to the Presidential Strategist Communication Unit (PSCU), the president directed that public hospitals in Nairobi offer 24-hour services to ensure city residents access health services whenever they need them.
The head of state was accompanied by NMS Director General Mohammed Badi and several senior Government officials during the four-hour operation.
The hospitals that were launched are part of 24 hospitals being constructed by the Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS).
“The dispensaries and level 2 health facilities should operate 24 hours services in order to decongest Kenyatta National Hospital and Mama Lucy Hospital.
"Instead of someone using money to go and seek medical services at Kenyatta National Hospital, they need to access these services at the facilities which are near them,” the president stated.
During his inspection tour, the president observed that most city health facilities operated only during the day denying residents much needed healthcare at night.
“So we decided it was important that these hospitals that we are building operate on a 24 hours basis. This is what we also wanted to see whether it was possible both on accessibility point of view and staffing point of view,” he added.
He explained that he wanted to commission the new hospitals at night so as to adhere to Covid-19 containment protocols.
"As you have seen for yourselves, it would have been impossible to go and do what we did today, during the day because of the number of people who would have been out there.
"It would have been very difficult for us to do the job we wanted to do and at the same time observe Covid-19 protocols that the government has put in place,” he told journalists.
He added that the night tour was also aimed at inspecting the ongoing road construction projects within the informal settlements saying so far a total of 400kms had been completed while another 450kms were underway.
“The other thing we wanted to see was the roads. We embarked on a programme where we are doing 400kms of roads in our inner cities. We have been able to travel in those informal settlements without challenges."
