A section of patients seeking medical services at the Uasin Gishu County Hospital in Eldoret town is up in arms over a decision to charge them a fee before using toilets at the facility.
The patients say they have been accessing the facility free of charge and the fee was recently introduced after the toilets were renovated by the county government through a partnership with the Old Mutual, Faulu Kenya Foundation.
All patients seeking to use the toilet are now required to pay Sh10.
The patients have however termed the move as weird and called on relevant county government officials to investigate the matter.
“Today I am very surprised that a toilet that we were using for free at the county hospital is now being charged Sh10. What is more intriguing is the fact that whoever is collecting that money has no receipt so my question is how is that money accounted for? Where does it go at the end of the day?” said a patient who sought anonymity.
“I have never seen a hospital charging patients to use toilets, this is the corruption of the highest order that need to be investigated,” he added.
County’s Executive in charge of Environment Mary Njogu, however, defended the decision to charge patients using the toilets noting that it was a project meant to provide job opportunities to the youths.
“The money we are collecting from the toilet fees will be going to the youth fund. We decided to charge patients and other members of the public using the facility as a way of giving some of our youth’s jobs,” said Njogu.
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