By Lenah Bosibori
In the 2016/2017 financial year, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) committee of Starehe constituency in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi set aside 230,000USD to construct a four-storey maternity facility.
Taking a walk into Nairobi’s Suburb, South B estate you are met by a heap of garbage at the entrance of the two-storey health facility which lies idle.
It has been three years since its constructions the, Nairobi South Health Centre stands incomplete with cracks all over its main walls.
This is not the only incomplete construction meant to serve the public, there are many other idle dispensaries established through CDF funds running into millions but far away from commencing its operations as health facilities.
Apart from the facility being incomplete, political differences among former and current MPs, lack of nurses, clinical officers, and medical supplies, are some of the challenges leading to the current state of the facility.
We embarked on a fact-finding mission to establish what could have caused the project to stall. Residents around the facility say its completion would have seen them breathe a sigh of relief because a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders. It is the burden of seeking maternity services at Pumwani, Mama Lucy and Kenyatta National Hospital, which are miles away from the area.
In an interview with George Mwendwa, chairman of CDF in Starehe Constituency, the facility requires 110,000 USD for it to be fully operational with a modern theater, accelerator, beds, staff, and medical equipment.
“After we finished building the facility, we handed it to Nairobi City County for them to furnish it fully since then I have made several visits at city hall with no answer from the people in charge,” said Mwendwa.
In 2015 NG-CDF, parliament passed an Act limiting the spending of CDF cash to projects falling under the functions of the national government in line with the Constitution.
“Since this project was approved before the Act, it had to go on,” a source at CDF offices in Nairobi told us.
According to a source at City hall who did not want to be named, “The facility has got cracks everywhere and therefore it is not suitable for maternity services. This is a matter we have come across during our investigations” they said.
“This means that a lot has to be done again before it is fully furnished,” added the source.
Our efforts to rich Veska Kangongo CEC Health Nairobi County for a comment were futile since we camped there for three weeks being pushed for appointments each and every day.
The building was supposed to have four stories but due to mismanagement of the initial funds, it had to stop on the second floor according to Mwendwa.
“I have gone to City Hall until I am now tired,”
Mwendwa
He revealed that he had written to a number of donors to fund the project but is yet to receive a response from the local and foreign benefactors.
When asked about the cracks at the facility, Mwendwa said that he has not gone to the facility for the last five months and so they could have developed during his absence.
Mwendwa appealed to the National government to procure 12 beds for a start because the area is fully congested with pregnant women going all the way to Shalom and Pumwani hospitals in search of quality maternity services.
According to National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), in Kenya, an estimated 6,300 women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth, a tragic number that reflects inadequate progress toward providing essential health services to all women.
Due to failure to recruit staff and purchase maternity equipment to run the facility, some of the health Centers have been lying idle five years countrywide
“We have been waiting for this facility to start operating so that it can save our people from maternal deaths but it seems that it will take longer than we expected,” said Monica Mogere a resident of Nairobi Southward.
Mogere adds that she hoped that she could secure a job at the facility but she has now lost hope.
A nurse at the facility also told us that she will retire and leave the facility idle as she sees no progress so far.
“If it has been difficult for the County to fund the adjacent facility with labs for maternity services, how is it going to fund this big one?” posed the nurse
Initially, among the most common projects for CDF included road repairs, construction of health centers and schools, as well as sinking boreholes and the purchase of water tanks.
“Staff from City hall visited the facility and took photos of the cracks,” a source at city hall told us.
According to the source, the facility is in a state that cannot be used as it is now unless thorough repairs are done.
It was anticipated that the building and equipping of the health centers would improve healthcare services at Nairobi South due to the growing number of informal settlements in the area.
Some of the informal settlement around the area include; Mukuru Kayaba, Fuata Nyayo, Commercial, Kenya Wine, Hazina along Aoko Road, Masaai Village and Kisii village among others
According to Waithera Chege, the area Member of County Assembly (MCA) the facility is still in the budget.
According to the World Health Organization, Kenya is among the 10 countries that comprised 58% of the global maternal deaths in 2013, contributing 2% of maternal mortality.
