Mbagathi Hospital administrator suspended as leadership tussle escalates

The raging turf wars among members of the top management of Mbagathi Hospital have claimed their first victim.

This is after the hospital’s management board suspended health administrative officer Geoffrey Mosiria over alleged incitement and threats to top officers at the county facility.

In a letter to Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Maj-Gen Mohammed Badi, the management board, led by its chairperson George Osewe, said the decision to suspend Mr Mosiria was taken after a series of misdemeanours at the hospital.

The letter, dated September 18, 2020, cites the health administrative officer for repeatedly writing adverse communication on the hospital’s medical superintendent and the hospital and putting the same on social media, as well as doing interviews on the same “adverse allegations”.

Mr Mosiria has also been accused of consistent efforts to cause negative publicity for the hospital, disaffection and disharmony between the staff of the hospital and the medical superintendent Dr Loice Mutai.

“There are reports that he (Mr Mosiria) has openly threatened the medical superintendent. We also have complaints we made earlier on the same officer concerning irregular cutting of trees and disposal of the cut logs. Please find attached evidence of the same in the attached letters,” reads the letter.

“The Board has deliberated on these matters and has decided to suspend the officer, Mr Geoffrey Mosiria. The above named officer has caused a lot of acrimony and incitement at the hospital in the past several weeks,” the letter further says.

The letter is signed by Mr Osewe and other members of the board, including Patrick Mwirigi, Anne Waceke, Fatuma Musa, Gerald Kimeu and Woodley/Kenyatta Golf Course Ward MCA Mwangi Njihia.

But this was long time coming after Dr Mutai on August 31, 2020, wrote a letter to Mr Mosiria accusing him of gross misconduct and insubordination.

Disciplinary action

The letter demanded that Mr Mosiria shows cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against him.

The letter gave the officer until September 2, 2020 to respond to the medical superintendent.

The battle between Mr Mosiria and Dr Mutai began in July when they disagreed over the running of affairs at the county health facility with the control of the hospital’s imprest at the heart of the conflict.

Mr Mosiria joined the hospital in April from Pumwani Maternity Hospital in the same capacity while Dr Mutai was elevated to the medical superintendent position, replacing Joseph Karani in June.

On July 24, 2020, Mr Mosiria wrote to Dr Mutai asking her to define the roles of his office but, rather than respond to the letter, Dr Mutai on July 29, 2020 accused Mr Mosiria of taking over the signing of the hospital’s imprests, a role that is supposed to be handled by the medical superintendent.

Mr Mosiria hit back asking Dr Mutai, in a letter dated July 30, to clarify what “if and when necessary” meant so as to enable his office discharge day-to-day running of the hospital.

He also accused Dr Mutai of “running the hospital as a personal property” and defended his actions, saying that as one of the signatories at the hospital, signing of imprests was also his job.

Further, on July 30, Mr Mosiria wrote to NMS Director of Health Services for intervention, accusing Dr Mutai of not allowing departments at the hospital to perform their delegated duties and responsibilities without her interference.