Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has asked Mosop MP Abraham Kirwa to file a formal complaint against Nairobi Hospital and the doctor who treated him when he suffered a major stroke that forced him out of Parliament and public life for nearly two years.
Mr Duale said the law allows Mr Kirwa to lodge a medical negligence complaint against both the hospital and the doctor who attended to him.
“I hope you have filed a formal complaint with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC). What happened to you is horrible and unacceptable. The problem was the doctor who decided not to give you the right drug. He cannot get away with what he did. Many Kenyans have lost their lives due to negligence,” he said.
Member of Parliament for Mosop Constituency Abraham Kirwa.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
The Cabinet Secretary spoke during the 2026 Legislative Retreat in Naivasha on Wednesday, January 27.
"I urge Honourable Kirwa and other affected Kenyans who have faced medical negligence to file complaints against hospitals and doctors. The law allows this.”
Mr Kirwa said he woke up on the morning of August 2, 2024, healthy and in high spirits since it was his birthday. He drove to the airport to pick up his wife before heading to his usual Saturday radio programme.
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By nightfall, he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed. That was the beginning of a 15-month medical ordeal that would take him across three continents, raising puzzling questions about the medications Kenyans trust with their lives.
The MP was rushed to Nairobi Hospital, where his wife, familiar with American medical protocols, immediately recognised the symptoms and pleaded with doctors to administer tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a clot-busting drug used worldwide to halt strokes and heart attacks when given within the critical first hours.
However, the doctor on duty declined.
Mr Kirwa spent the next 18 days at the hospital, undergoing therapy and receiving medication he believed was helping him recover. Instead, his condition deteriorated.
“The doctor monitoring my heart function noted that it kept falling from 25 per cent to 23 per cent, then to 18 per cent until it dropped below 15 per cent, a life-threatening level. My heart was shutting down. My wife was told that if it fell below 15 per cent, I would die,” he said.
The family pleaded for a medical evacuation abroad, but according to Mr Kirwa, the hospital declined. The family eventually secured a private emergency flight to Dubai, but even then, the ordeal continued.
On Wednesday, Mr Kirwa said he had instructed his lawyers to pursue the matter with the KMPDC.
The Nairobi Hospital. The board of management accuses the police of continued harassment and intimidation despite seeking court intervention.
Photo credit: File | Nation
“I have not yet filed a formal complaint with the KMPDC, but I will instruct my lawyer immediately to do so because what Nairobi Hospital and the doctor did to me was very wrong,” Mr Kirwa told the Daily Nation after the meeting.
“Why should I suffer because of their negligence? How many Kenyans are dying because of doctors’ negligence? If this can happen to an MP, what about ordinary Kenyans?” he asked.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula cited a personal experience in which his uncle died under the care of a medical doctor two years ago.
“My uncle went to a professional doctor who was apparently intoxicated. He administered anaesthesia using poison, and my uncle died. We have many such cases, and I urge the chairperson of the Health Committee, Dr James Nyikal, to initiate legal reforms so that independent bodies can hear cases of medical malpractice and deliver justice to victims,” Mr Wetang’ula said.
CS Duale cautioned MPs to be careful when choosing healthcare facilities, adding: “I don’t want to say more than that.”
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“He has never gone to medical school. In Tharaka Nithi County, we were told there was a Nigerian doctor whose patients mostly women were dying at alarming rates,” Mr Duale said.
The CS said corruption had previously plagued the Pharmacy and Poisons Board but noted that the institution has since been reformed.
“The KMPDC was being used to issue licences to anyone who paid. I initially denied that Afya House was a mafia house, but within two weeks of stepping there, I realised it was. I have stepped on many toes, but we must protect Kenyans," Mr Duale said.
