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Health Ministry Disowns Butere based Mwale Hospital and Leaders Urge Government to open investigation
After revelations that the much touted Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC) is a phantom project a section of leaders from Western region and residents of Butere now want the government to investigate individuals behind it.
This came as it emerged that both the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Board (KMPDB) disowned the existence of the much hyped 5000 bed capacity hospital in Butere, terming it a creation of the media.
The leaders are now calling upon President William Ruto to order the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to launch investigations into claims by the self-proclaimed multimillionaire Julius Mwale that the facility was operational when it was not.
Former Butere Legislator Andrew Toboso said that despite the much hype both locally and internationally, there is nothing on the ground.
Toboso dismissed claims of the existence of a 5000 bed capacity Hamptons hospital, a 36-hole golf course, a shopping complex and an international airport at where MMTC is situated.
“Forget about the hype you have been seeing in the media. On the ground, there is nothing apart from some two or three buildings enclosed in some compound. The existence of a 5000 bed capacity hospital would pronounce itself without necessarily waiting to be advertised,” Toboso told journalists.
Toboso is the third senior personality from Butere to question the lies surrounding the existence of MMTC after former Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Central Organisation of Trad Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli told donors not to b hoodwinked by a phantom project.
Oparanya, who hails from Butere and who was vocal against the project at one time, before signing an agreement with the lead investor Mwale, says the whole thing is shrouded in controversy and mystery.
“On the ground there is nothing, but we read in the press about how there is an ultra-modern hospital with state of the art equipment. We have also been told of the existence of a 36-hole golf course that nobody has ever seen,” Oparanya had said in an interview.
“Logically do you believe the story of the existence of a 5000 bed hospital capacity? If Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) has only about 2,500 beds and is considered to be the biggest in East and Central Africa, then a 5000 bed capacity should be the biggest in the continent. But who are the patients that it treats?” Oparanya questioned.
Atwoli on the other hand, had said he has never heard of anybody from Butere or within Western region, who has ever used the purported airport, golf course or the hospital.
Talking to journalists, Toboso disclosed that he would soon petition Parliament to summon the DCI over the phantom project.
It has also emerged that the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Board (KMPDB) are yet to be furnished with details of the alleged 5000 bed capacity hospital at MMTC.
The acting Director General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth when contacted said the so called Hamptons hospital was yet to be registered with the Ministry even if it existed.
“Just like all other Kenyans, we have only been reading about that hospital in the media. But the government is not aware of the existence of such facility. We have not even received any application for its operation,” said Dr Amonth.
Elsewhere, a source at the KMPDB, which is charged with the responsibility of regulating all hospitals in Kenya, disclosed that there is no facility called Hamptons hospital.
“Have you visited the place and seen any patient being treated there? Or even have u ever heard of anybody who has ever been treated,” one of the senior officials of KMPB told journalists.
The Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), an official lobby group for the doctors’ welfare , Dr Davji Atellah cautioned Kenyans to be wary of certain facilities being bandied around on social media.
“We would like to caution Kenyans to be careful about that facility being bandied around because so far, w have not had any of our accredited doctors working there. And neither are w even aware of its existence,” said Dr Atellah.