Residents say new dispensaries too small to cost Sh3.5m each
A newly built dispensary at Nkarini market in Tharaka-Nithi County. Locals have claimed the dispensaries built by the county are too small to have cost Sh3.5 million each, saying the area MP built larger classrooms at a fraction of that cost. PHOTO | ALEX NJERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- A resident told the Nation that the newly commissioned Nkarini Dispensary stocked only painkillers.
- County health executive Walter Mugambi said the dispensaries cost an average of Sh3.5 million each.
Tharaka-Nithi residents have raised question about the county's construction of 56 dispensaries at the cost of nearly Sh200 million.
Locals have claimed the dispensaries are too small to have cost Sh3.5 million each.
John Mutegi, a resident of Nkondi division, said it was unlikely that most of the newly built dispensaries, which have two or three rooms, could have cost Sh3.5 million as purported by the government.
On the contrary, he said, classrooms built by Tharaka MP Mburi Muiru using Constituency Development Funds cost only Sh500,000 each and are bigger than the dispensaries.
Another resident, Magdalene Mukami, from Nkarini market in Tharaka South, said the rooms are too small.
She added that the newly commissioned Nkarini Dispensary stocked only painkillers.
County health executive Walter Mugambi said the dispensaries cost an average of Sh3.5 million each, noting that some have four rooms, staff quarters and an ablution block.
Mr Mugabi added that the county renovated the Kibunga Sub-County Hospital and the Mpukoni Dispensary and built a theatre at Tharaka and Magutuni sub-county hospitals.
“The rooms are built to Ministry of Health standards,” said Mr Mugambi.
