MPs were on Tuesday taken aback by a revelation that a nongovernmental organisation occupies land belonging to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret.
Hospital’s CEO Wilson Aruasa who had appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Social Services, administration and Agriculture told the legislators that the NGO occupies 15 acres of its land.
Aruasa could not, however, explain how the NGO was allocated the land which he said has been in existence for a couple of years.
This is as he affirmed that he has already initiated the process of having the National Lands Commission (NLC) address the matter.
“Chair, we are not competing with the NGO ...we do not have a problem with them continuing to offer services to Kenyans. How they acquired the land is the only issue,” he submitted.
The CEO was responding to audit queries raised by the Auditor General in its report for the year ending June 30, 2016.
The NGO which is set up in the precincts of MTRH offers maternal health and family planning services.
It is said to have been allocated the property through an agreement with the Ministry of Health.
Responding to it, Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeto reckoned that owing to the service it provides to Kenyans, there was a need for the organization to enter into a long-term agreement with the Hospital as a solution.
“This is not the first case where we are having a quasi-government agency in the country and so to me, this is not a big issue…it is a matter of extending the lease period and having them pay,” he stated.
Committee Emmanuel Wangwe said the committee will “help” the institution regularise the existence of the relationship between the two.
Nominated MP Jackson Koskei challenged the leadership and management of the Hospital to find out how the said organisation acquired the parcel of land.
“Even as you approach NLC it should not be an issue of historical land injustice, there must be a point of entry into the existence of this relationship and that should be clarified,” he stated.
Aruasa further told the Committee they have since resolved an issue which was also part of the query where the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) is said to have been put up a structure on a road reserve.
The structure, he noted, is 50 per cent complete.
According to the CEO, the demolition would have affected the structure and part of Hospital's Emergency Department.
“What we have done is that there is a multiagency team that has sat down and the saving grace is that nobody from the government would bring down the emergency department because of the way it has served everybody,” he said.
He added;
“This was on condition that we gave a similar amount on the memorial site as MTRH and the church was also gracious enough to give some part of it and compensated by KURA accordingly and so the road now is okay.”
While responding to the issue of payslip deductions not being remitted, Aruasa told the Committee that this resulted from underfunding and the late release of government funding from the Treasury.
He, however, confirmed that the funds were released and have since been remitted.