Nairobi, Kenya (CU)_ In honor of the First Lady, Mathare-Korogocho Level 5 Hospital has been rebranded as Mama Margaret Kenyatta Hospital. Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) spent around Sh400 million to build the health facility in Mathare North. According to NMS Director-General Lieutenant General Mohamed Badi, the hospital will begin admitting patients and will offer other services from this week before President Kenyatta’s formal launching scheduled later this month.
The institution, which has a capacity of 350 beds, is the largest hospital managed by the Nairobi County Government. General Badi said that the hospital will be opened within a week. He said, “This hospital had stalled for years but will in a week’s time open its doors to the public awaiting its commissioning”.
The five-story building will be the county’s first referral hospital that operates under the county administration. The new healthcare facility is intended to alleviate pressure on Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, which treats more than 2.1 million people surrounding the Eastlands region. In-patient rooms, a 24-hour pharmacy, a renal dialysis center, an ICU, a burns unit, and operation theatres are the facilities available at Mama Margaret Kenyatta Hospital.
The hospital project began earlier in the 1990s but was halted until President Kenyatta authorized the NMS to supervise its completion last year. According to Dr. Ouma Oluga, Director of Health Services at NMS, the new facility will lower the number of visiting patients traffic at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). Dr. Oluga said, “We call on the public to take advantage of specialized healthcare services available for free or at subsidized rates in these facilities”.
