Inside KNH's ward of death

For the second time this year, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is under scrutiny following the killing of a patient under bizarre circumstances, raising fresh concerns over recurring security lapses at the facility. 

On Thursday evening, Kenyans were once again shocked after reports emerged that Edward Maingi Ndegwa, a patient admitted at the referral hospital,  had been brutally killed in broad daylight. 

The incident has renewed questions about the safety of patients in the hospital’s wards, especially considering that a similar incident occurred in February. At the time, KNH management had pledged to strengthen surveillance measures to prevent such tragedies. 

Kennedy Kalombolote has been linked to Ndegwa's death. Reports indicate that Ndegwa was admitted to Ward 7B, Group C (Male).  On Thursday around 11:30am, a nurse checked his condition and recorded his blood pressure.

At 12:30 pm, a relative visited and found him stable, leaving the ward at around 1:30 pm.

However, at around 2 pm, a cleaner making rounds in the corridor noticed blood pooling around the patient’s neck, prompting the hospital management to call the police.

A homicide team dispatched to the scene reported spotting bloody slipper prints leading from the victim’s bedside to a nearby toilet, and eventually to a side room where the suspect, Kolombolote, was admitted.

Kilimani head of criminal investigations, Hussein Mahat, said several items were recovered, including the suspect’s shoes, which had bloodstains, likely from stepping on the floor.

“The forensic team collected swabs, and the shoes had visible stains. A bloodstained bedsheet was also found on his bed, all of which will aid in analysis,” said Mahat, adding that CCTV footage could provide crucial leads.

According to Mahat, Kolombolote was due for discharge on the same day he was linked to the murder.

“The motive of the killing is yet to be established, as the suspect's mental state remains unclear given his medical condition,” he added.

The incident comes just five months after another patient was killed in a similarly disturbing manner.

On the night of February 6, 2025, Gilbert Kinyua was killed after his neck was slit while lying in his hospital bed, allegedly by an intruder.

According to his wife, Susan Wanjiku, the hospital management informed her that Kinyua was murdered around 2am, but the killing was only discovered several hours later.

Wanjiku questioned how a stranger managed to access the hospital, enter the ward in the early hours of the morning and fatally attack her bedridden husband without detection.

She said her husband's neck had been slashed with a sharp object, almost severing it and emphasized that Kinyua had no known conflicts, even with his family.

Pathologists who conducted a post-mortem on Kinyua’s body said the neck wound was about three centimetres deep.

At the same time, it was noted that his body also had blisters on the back, indicating that he had not been moved for a long time, in a case that is still being investigated.

Not long ago, Kinyua’s family, during a press briefing, expressed frustration over the slow pace of the investigation, contrary to their expectations. They claimed that the probe was not progressing as swiftly as had been promised by both the hospital and the police.

Following Kinyua's murder, the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Health visited the hospital on a fact-finding mission.

The committee, chaired by Endebess MP Dr Robert Pukose, urged investigative agencies to consider Kinyua's former bedmate as a person of interest in the case.

Committee members were informed that the fingerprints of Kinyua’s bedmate, who was being treated as the prime suspect, had been submitted to the National Registration Bureau for identification.

In a chilling parallel, back in November 2015, another patient, 42-year-old Cosmas Mutunga, was brutally murdered at the same hospital. Mutunga, a cancer patient, had been admitted to Ward 8C on November 8 and was later found dead with multiple stab wounds and one of his eyes gouged out, an incident that shocked the country.

It is said that at the time, he was sharing the room with an incapacitated and deaf cancer patient. Only three nurses were on duty the night the murder occurred and were later arrested to face the charges.

They were Geoffrey Mureithi, Priscilla Wairimu, Rosemary Nkonge and Mary Muthoni and were accused of killing Mutunga on November 29, 2015.

A postmortem report revealed that Mutunga had been severely beaten, his skull fractured, his eyes gouged out, and one leg shattered.

It was reported that Mutunga was stabbed 42 times in what detectives described as a brutal and violent attack.

For the first time, the killing exposed grave security gaps at the region’s largest referral hospital.

Mutunga, a father of four, was killed just hours after his family had visited him and days after they donated blood for his chemotherapy treatment.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Health promised to install CCTV cameras in the facility to help in curbing similar cases.