Following the release of 258 patients who had previously been detained for non-payment of bills at Kenyatta National Hospital, 22 of them had nowhere to go, claiming they had no family or friends to house them.
The 22 include street children and orphans who had found a home at the hospital.
The hospital’s board of management said the decision to release 258 detained patients was arrived at after public outcry.
“Tutatoa hio list ya hao watu wote, ukiona kuna mgonjwa unajua kwao tafadhali julisha hospitali,” Mr Stanley Kamau a board member said.
KNH has struck a deal with some of the released patients to have them pay the bills in monthly installments, while others received full waivers.
“We have a few that we have come up with an arrangement on how they are going to be paying their bills on monthly installments and us we have already agreed. Others we have done our assessment and seen that even if they stayed here for another 10 days, one month, one year, they will never pay,” Mr Kamau said.
The hospital’s acting CEO Thomas Mutie said the move will decongest the referral hospital even as the accrued total debt stands at Sh5.6 billion since 2003.