State to pay bills for victims of accident

By Felix Olick

The Government will foot medical bills and funeral expenses of victims of the Tanzania road accident, 21 of whom are still admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Acting Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia said the Government was aware of the burden the families were facing and promised to cater for the costs.

“Just like in past tragedies, the Government will meet the treatment cost and the cost of burying loved ones. We want to support the victims to ensure we don’t lose any more lives,” said Kimemia.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his wife, Ida, also sent condolences to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and its Women’s Guild.

“I want to appeal to the members to draw consolation and strength from the fact that these colleagues died in the service of God. I believe the Almighty God grant the Church the strength to carry forward the good mission that was cut short by the cruel hand of death,” said the PM.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka visited the victims at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and sent his condolences to the bereaved families.

The VP saluted President Kibaki for acting swiftly to evacuate the victims from Tanzania.

He said the Ministry of Medical Services should have a disaster budgetary allocation for KNH and expresses confidence Parliament would support such a move.

“Kenyatta National Hospital has responded to several emergencies this year alone. The Ministry of Health should have a budget for this and Parliament will find that a genuine national concern,” noted the VP He called for common traffic laws in the spirit of East African Community so that traffic offenders across the region can be apprehended.

On Friday, the Government sent one Buffalo and a Dash-8 for the evacuation of members of PCEA Women’s Guild, who were involved in the accident. Thirteen died.

At Wilson Airport, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi, Nairobi PC Njoroge Ndirangu and Mr Kimemia received the first plane at about 10 o’clock.

On Saturday, KNH Chief Executive Officer Richard Lesiyampe said that out of the 66 casualties received from Tanzania, only three have been admitted to the emergency wards for intensive assessment.

He said 17 others are in Ward 42 that was opened on Friday specifically for the victims while the rest have been discharged.

“Thirty-one patients were treated for soft tissue injuries and have been discharged. 14 of them received this morning have also been treated and discharged most of them in stable condition,” said the KNH boss.

Lesiyampe confirmed that the 17 are steady and would soon be discharged. “We want to confirm that all are stable and in good condition. We are looking forward to discharging them,” he said.

He said they were not overwhelmed since they had received adequate notice and alerted their disaster management team.

“We had enough blood in the banks and did not require extra from outside. We were stretched in terms of staff capacity but we managed,” he said.