Kiambu County accused the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) of inflating newborn death figures. The county said the union exaggerated the numbers to cause panic during the ongoing doctors’ strike.
Speaking to NTV on Tuesday, Chief Officer for Health Services Patrick Nyagah dismissed the union’s report as alarmist and misleading. He said KMPDU doubled the numbers in nearly every category to create a false crisis in county hospitals.
“A single death is a serious concern,” Nyagah said. “But when you see inflated figures, it’s clear there’s malice. Where you find 16, it was actually eight; where you find six, it was three.”
Nyagah said some of the cases listed by KMPDU involved patients who arrived already dead. He added that this year’s neonatal death numbers match last year’s data, showing no link between the strike and the reported deaths.
He explained that referral hospitals handle more critical cases, which naturally leads to higher death numbers. Even in normal situations, newborn losses still occur because such facilities receive severely ill patients from smaller hospitals.
Clashing Figures
At Thika Level V Hospital, Nyagah said KMPDU reported 36 newborn deaths in September, but county records show only 11. “That’s three times the number,” he said. “And those 11 include referrals and cases from other hospitals.”
Nyagah said the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) wrote to the county and plans to visit Thika and Kiambu Level V Hospitals to verify the data. He said he feels confident that the truth will come out once verification begins.
Meanwhile, KMPDU continues to criticize Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s administration for failing to resolve the health crisis. The union said the county government ignored a return-to-work deal signed last year, forcing residents to suffer during the three-month strike.
On Monday, the union attacked the Council of Governors (CoG) for what it called an indifferent and heartless response to the crisis. Secretary-General Davji Atellah said KMPDU felt “deeply shocked and outraged” by the CoG’s decision to label the reported 131 newborn deaths as “pure mischief” and “false publication.” source: citizen
