Nairobi -Kenya’s largest referral hospital is under fire over missing funds and mishandled medical supplies.
The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), based in Eldoret, is facing tough questions from Parliament after the Auditor-General flagged nearly KSh1 million in unrecovered salary advances given to interns some of whom were not even eligible under hospital rules.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Social Services, the hospital’s CEO, Dr Philip Kirwa, defended the payments, saying they were made to help medical interns cope with delays in stipends from the Ministry of Health.
“Most interns repay the advances before they leave,” Kirwa told the committee. “But in the few cases where they don’t, we try to recover the money through the Ministry or the county governments.”
Still, the committee was not satisfied.
According to the Auditor-General’s findings, KSh930,000 was issued to interns on short-term contracts in breach of the hospital’s own human resource policy. Of that, KSh890,000 remained unpaid more than a year later.
Worse, there was no paper trail showing any follow-up by the hospital to recover the money.
Expired Medicines and Missing Records
The committee also turned its focus to MTRH’s handling of drugs and other medical stock. An audit of inventory records as of June 2020 showed a mismatch between the hospital’s books and what was on the ground.
Among the red flags: expired drugs worth KSh4.5 million still listed as usable stock, and pharmacy reports that had not been signed off by authorised staff.
“The accuracy of the inventory balance could not be confirmed,” the Auditor-General noted bluntly.
Pressed for answers, Dr Kirwa said the expired drugs had been valid at the time of stocktaking, but were later rendered unusable due to delays and administrative hiccups.
As for the unsigned reports, he called it a clerical error one that, he added, would not happen again. “We have already tightened procedures to ensure proper documentation,” he said.
MPs Demand Accountability
Lawmakers on the committee were unconvinced.
“There is something fundamentally wrong here,” said Vice-Chairperson Caleb Amisi. “Whether the people responsible are still in office or not, this points to theft.”
Committee Chair Emmanuel Wangwe directed the hospital to clean up its books and meet directly with the Auditor-General’s office. He also hinted that former hospital officials may be summoned to answer lingering questions.
“We are giving you time to regroup and return with answers backed by documentation,” Wangwe said. “We need closure on this.”
The hospital, which serves millions in Kenya’s Rift Valley and beyond, is no stranger to controversy. But this latest scrutiny comes at a time when the country’s public health system is already stretched and trust in institutions is under pressure.
As Parliament digs deeper, the spotlight remains fixed on MTRH’s ability to account for public funds and on the Ministry of Health’s role in overseeing one of the country’s most critical health institutions.
