Man in court on fake medical doctor charge

A man accused of pretending to be a doctor and treating patients in a public hospital was on Wednesday arraigned in court.

Mr Francis Elgoit Kadaya, alias Dr Kadaya, denied that he went around the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital wards “treating” patients on May 20.

When he appeared before senior principal magistrate Loise Komingoi, Mr Kadaya was charged that on May 20, he assumed the role of a medical doctor knowing very well that he was not qualified to attend to patients.

A second count stated that he donned a name tag identifying himself as a medical doctor claiming the same had been issued by the medical superintendent at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, John Murima.

Mr Kadaya who was not represented, however admitted committing the two offences.

The magistrate ordered that he be taken to the court cells to await the facts of the case to be read to him and the exhibits to be produced before court.

But 30 minutes after his case was mentioned, he changed his mind and denied the two counts.

Ms Komingoi released him on a bond of Sh300,000 with a surety of a similar amount, which he was not able to raise.

He was escorted to the Nakuru remand prison until May 30 when the case will be mentioned.

Security surveillance

Dr Murima said on Wendesday that security surveillance at the hospital will have to be improved to curb such incidents in future.

And the nurse-in-charge at the hospital, Mr John Ocholla said it is not the first time that the institution was being invaded by imposters.

“Before the current management took over, cases of imposters were common and we lost a lot of money,” he said.

He attributed this to lack of centralised automated system of payments, which has now been installed.