President William Ruto during an inspection tour of the Kisii Cancer Centre project President William Ruto has instructed the Ministry of Health to issue a final warning to the contractor building the Kisii Cancer Centre over delays bedevilling the project.
Ruto, who was on an inspection tour of the project on Wednesday asked Medical Services PS Harry Kimtai to issue the warning.
“Give very firm instructions to this contractor. This is unacceptable. You will get a final warning,” the President said.
Kimtai, who accompanied the President during the tour, said he had scheduled a meeting with the contractor on Friday.
“You come yourself here for that meeting on January third,” the President instructed.
“I was here three months ago and we agreed on what needs to be done but it's not happening.”
Ruto said the contract will have to be terminated if the contractor does not make improvements.
“If you do not pull up your socks, I am sorry we will have to terminate your contract and get another contractor so that we can get this cancer centre off the ground,” he said.
“It's just as simple as that, there is no fight, no quarrel, you just have to do what you have to do.”
On his social media pages, the President issued a warning on contractors delaying implementation of key projects.
“We have laid a strong foundation to accelerate the fulfilment of our promise to the people. Contractors delaying the implementation of key programmes will not be tolerated,” he said.
“I was dissatisfied with the progress and instructed the contractor to meet the deadlines or face contract termination.”
Kisii Cancer Centre is a partnership between Kisii County, the Arab Bank of Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the Saudi Fund For Development (SFD) and the Kenyan government.
The centre is being built at the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital at a cost of $22.8 million (Sh2.9 billion).
The funding is from the Kenya Government ($2.8 million), Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa ($10 million) and Saudi Fund for Development ($10 million).
The unveiling of the centre was informed by the rising cases of cancer-related deaths in the country.
It is estimated that over 39,000 new Cancer cases are reported in Kenya every year and according to World Health Organisation (WHO) reports, 27,000 cases of cancer infections reported are from the Western region of Kenya.
The Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret can handle about 9,000 cancer patients in a year while the rest of the patients visit private hospitals locally and abroad.
