Kiambu County has pushed back against claims by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) that dozens of newborns have died as a result of the ongoing doctors’ strike, accusing the union of inflating statistics to incite panic.
In an interview the county’s Chief Officer for Health Services, Patrick Nyagah, labelled the figures released by KMPDU as “alarmist and inaccurate,” suggesting that the numbers were deliberately exaggerated to stir public outrage.
“A single death is a matter of concern. But when we look at these alarmist numbers, we find that in every category, they have doubled the figures,” Where you find 16, it was something like eight. Where you find six, it’s something like three. There is malice in adding numbers where they don’t exist.”
Dr NyagahCounty Defends Health Data Amid Strike
According to Dr Nyagah, some of the reported deaths involved patients who were brought in already dead, and therefore should not be attributed to in-hospital service delivery failures. He also dismissed the union’s implication that the strike had worsened mortality rates.
Dr Nyagah emphasized that referral hospitals record higher neonatal deaths due to the complexity of the cases referred to them.
Even when we don’t have strikes or disputes, we still have some losses through referral centres. However, somebody picked those numbers, added them, and made it look like it’s an issue of the last three months
Dr Nyagah Dispute Over Thika Hospital Figures
Citing Thika Level V Hospital, Nyagah accused KMPDU of grossly inflating figures. He stated that while the union reported 36 newborn deaths in September, the county’s internal records showed only 11.
He added that the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) had written to the county and was scheduled to visit both Thika and Kiambu Level V hospitals to verify the data provided by the county.
Tensions Between KMPDU and County Administration
The union has been highly critical of Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s administration, citing its failure to resolve a months-long standoff with medical workers. The strike, which has lasted over three months, has severely affected service delivery in public hospitals across the county. KMPDU also lashed out at the Council of Governors (CoG) for what it termed an “indifferent and heartless” response to the crisis. The union accused county bosses of trivialising the deaths of 131 newborns reported across several public health facilities.
The union insists that the ongoing health crisis is a direct result of the county government’s refusal to honour a return-to-work agreement signed in the previous year, adding that residents have been left to suffer without adequate access to medical care.
