Kiambu seeks Sh2bn to revamp health

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In Summary

Kiambu Governor James Nyoro has said that the county is seeking to raise Sh2 billion to fix the healthcare gap, both in the Covid-19 period and after the pandemic.

Mr Nyoro made the announcement Saturday when he unveiled the Kiambu County Covid-19 Emergency Fund at the county’s headquarters. He received a donation of Sh134 million, both in cash and in kind, towards the initiative.

Some of the companies that made the donations were fruit juice processor Del Monte who donated Sh4 million in Kind, Family Bank which donated intensive care unit beds worth Sh3 million and Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) which gave a donation of Sh1.5 million.

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

The governor said the Sh2 billion will be used in buying medical equipment for hospitals in the county, particularly the level four and level five ones and buying food to feed over 30,000 vulnerable households which have been negatively affected by the harsh economic situation in the country.

From the money, the governor said that Sh300 million will be used for setting up the needed infrastructure at Tigoni Hospital which has now been turned into a fully dedicated Covid-19 centre.

The hospital is expected to have a 300 ICU bed capacity to cater for any surge in new Covid-19 infections in the county.

“We have so far spent Sh300 million in putting up the right infrastructure in the county health facilities as well as in feeding the vulnerable families and we are seeking to raise a total of Sh2 billion for this exercise,” said Mr Nyoro.

AUDIT FUNDS

“We already have a team of auditors in place to make sure that no money is misappropriated and those found culpable will be prosecuted,” added the governor.

He said he will appeal to people from Kiambu living in the diaspora to support the initiative.

He lauded the corporate sector for its contributions, saying they will go a long way in helping the needy.

Recently, Mr Nyoro said he would be procuring oxygen in bulk to equip four hospitals in Kiambu in the fight against Covid-19.

The oxygen is expected to be installed at Gatundu, Thika and Kiambu level five hospitals and Tigoni Level Four Hospital.

During Saturday’s event, Kiambu Woman Rep Gathoni Wamuchomba urged the team that is distributing food in the county to give priority to deserving families, saying majority of them are economically strained.