Macharia sent a statement to newsrooms stating that purported deal does not exist since the proposal is still under review and no tender has been awarded to any company/FILE
Macharia sent a statement to newsrooms stating that purported deal does not exist since the proposal is still under review and no tender has been awarded to any company.
“The Ministry of Health floated an International Expression of Interest for the establishment of another hospital in the newly acquired 200-acre piece of land. The evaluation is ongoing; no tender has been awarded and no costs determined,” read part of the statement.
He came to the defence of Deputy President William Ruto who has been accused by Nairobi based businessman Herbert Ojwang’ of sidelining him in the inflated Sh28bn deal.
Macharia said the hospital management had called on the DP to assist them in obtaining funding for the expansion and improvement of the existing facilities in the hospital to provide the required specialised healthcare to thousands of Kenyans who rely on it.
“After going through the proposal, the Deputy President expressed concerns over the manner in which the contractor and their accomplice had been identified, the justification of destruction of four wards currently occupied by patients and the logic of trying to construct such a facility in an already congested place,” he said.
The Deputy President also questioned how the initial Sh17 billion contract value had been arrived at and the rationale of building an exorbitant Sh2 billion car park.
When the proposal to renovate the hospital came about, MTRH opted to work with the Ministry of Medical Services to upgrade the hospital through financing from the Chinese government on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement.
The process started way back in 2003, but the Parliamentary Health Committee stopped the refurbishment over concerns that the hospital had signed pacts with two different entities.
But in 2012 two Chinese companies submitted interest letters to the hospital to facilitate financing, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) to upgrade the hospital by 1,000 beds among other project components.
The proposed project comprised several components including, a 1,000 bed in-patient complex, a reproductive health centre of excellence, a four-storey car park, a solar power plant, a modern hospital waste incinerating plant and also access road networks within the hospital.
So far the request by the hospital for a portion of the 800-acre prisons land has been approved by Cabinet with 200 acres having been transferred to the hospital.
“The 200-acre piece of land has already been hived off, fenced and surveyed,” Macharia added.
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