A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine at a Kenyan hospital. [Photo/kenyapharmtech.com]
It is a tale that has got the minds of Kiambu residents racing with questions whose answers have proven elusive.
News that the Kiambu Level Four Hospital had acquired a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine was met with joyful ululations, with the residents seeing it as a solution to the many trips that they to make to Nairobi.
To the shock of many, the acquisition is turning out to be a white elephant as residents cannot enjoy the services of the hyped machine as there is no qualified personnel to operate.
The situation is replicated in other counties that have acquired the highly-technical machines for lack of specialised personnel to operate them.
For instance, in Kisumu's Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's Teaching and Referral Hospital patients have had to be turned away due to what Dr. Ouma, a doctor at the facility, says is the acute shortage of radiologists to operate the machines.
''We don't have enough radiologists to operate the machines so we are forced to turn back a huge number of patients,'' he says.
The story is the same at the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital.Dr. Enock Ondari says that the specialised machines that the facility acquired are largely idle as there is no personnel to operate them.
Rough estimates indicate that the taxpayer had to part with about 38 billion shillings to procure the machines, a revelation which may come as a shock to many Kenyans.
The situation, according to health experts, blows to the surface the lack of foresight on the part of health policy-makers in the country.
Someone had to figure out who was to operate the machines before splashing money on them only for them to lie idle.