Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.
On December 15, 2024, a 52-year-old cancer patient was admitted to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret City for medical attention.
Bringing him to the facility, his family was optimistic that he was in safe hands as medics attended to his cancer-related complications.
But on January 29, police said on Tuesday, the hospital management reported to Naiberi Police Station that the patient— name withheld as police trace his next of kin— had gone missing from the ward.
For the next two weeks, both police and the hospital could not trace the invalid. On Sunday, February 9, however, the decomposing body of the patient was found on the banks of River Sosiani, just about 200 away from the busy referral facility.
The body, which was found in civilian clothes, had been mauled by dogs, police said.
Detectives in Eldoret are trying to unravel the circumstances under which the patient allegedly escaped from MTRH, the second-largest referral hospital in the country. The patient’s name is withheld, since police are tracing his next of kin.
The incident happened hot on the heels of the shocking murder of a patient at a Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) ward.
The management of MTRH is yet to convince police how the patient left the hospital, which is under tight security surveillance and under the command of highly trained retired security officers from government security departments such as the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), among others.
The incident has puzzled many, and top management has declined to comment on it, referring the Nation to the police when we sought comment.
Police are now treating all guards who were on duty at the referral hospital on the day of the incident as prime suspects in the matter.
Uasin Gishu County Police Commander Benjamin Mwanthi, who confirmed the incident to Nation.Africa on Tuesday, said they were yet to establish how the patient left his hospital bed.
Post-mortem
He is, however, optimistic that a post-mortem could help establish whether the patient died by suicide.
“The guards on duty must be held responsible for the security lapse surrounding this mysterious death,” said the county police boss.
He told Nation.Africa that Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives were combing the crime scene and questioning the hospital staff and management, hoping to unravel the mysterious death of the patient outside the hospital precincts.
Detectives will also question his family, Mr Mwanthi said.
“Homicide detectives from the Central Police Station Eldoret visited the scene and retrieved the decomposed body on the banks of the River Sosiani in civilian clothes,” said Mr Mwanthi.
The body was taken to the hospital morgue for preservation, awaiting the postmortem.
According to the county police boss, investigators were yet to obtain CCTV footage to assist in unraveling the incident, which has stunned the hospital community.
A similar incident happened in July 2012 when a patient went missing from the facility and his body was later found floating in the same river.
