The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital has said it will take up support for thousands of HIV-Aids patients who have been affected by the closure of the Ampath Uzima project, which was funded by the US government.
Hospital CEO Dr Phillip Kirwa said some of the staff who were attached to Ampath clinics will continue to offer care and support to the patients mostly in the Western Kenya region.
“Patients will not be disadvantaged because currently the treatment and management of patients is being handled by workers who were employed by MTRH and other agencies attached to Ampath,” Kirwa said.
He added that they were waiting for communication on the fate of workers who were directly employed by Usaid at the Ampath clinics.
“The stop work order by the US government will disrupt some services but we assure patients that the hospital and other agencies will put in place mechanisms to ensure that they continue to receive the treatment and sport they need,” Kirwa said.
He spoke at the hospital where the Ampath Centre, which serves as the headquarters of the project, is located.
The agency, which had hundreds of workers at the main offices and at other regional sites in Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western regions, sent all its staff on unpaid leave two days ago and shut down its clinics indefinitely.
This was following US President Donald Trump’s suspension of funding. A letter signed by the Usaid Ampath Uzima Chief of Party, Professor Sylvester Kimaiyo, directed the staff to proceed on leave starting February 1, 2025.
The letter is dated January 31, 2025. Kimaiyo said the move was in reference to the Notice of Implementation of Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid letter dated January 24, 2025.
During the period, employees are requested to remain accessible via email or phone for any urgent communication from the management.
“Further updates regarding the resumption of work or other instructions will be communicated as soon as possible. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and understanding during this period,” the letter reads.
The affected workers were yes terday seen clearing their offices in compliance with the directive.
They said it was unfortunate that thousands of people would suffer due to lack of care following the move to cease operations.
Yesterday, Kimaiyo, who has led Ampath for over eight years, declined to comment on the developments.
The project reached more than one million people through counseling and testing and over 120,000 patients lived on support through Ampath programmes, records show.
The first patient living with HIV started treatment in late 2000, in what had become one of Africa’s most comprehensive and successful HIV-Aids treatment and prevention programmes.
National Treasury CS John Mbadi has said should President Trump make good his directive to freeze foreign aid to various programmes in Kenya, the country will revert to domestic financing.
“We will have no alternative but to slash part of the development budget and use the funds to finance critical programmes that will be starved of cash if the US stops foreign aid,” Mbadi told journalists in Naivasha.
“There is no cause for alarm as I have started to put measures in place to ensure that health programmes that depended heavily on foreign aid are not paralysed.”
Health programmes, such as the fight against HIV-Aids, were critical to saving lives and the government will provide funding to ensure their continuity, he added.
The CS however pointed out that
the government was awaiting official
communication from America on
the freeze.
