Uproar as Pumwani Maternity workers lockout woman giving birth from facility .
In the video shared on Twitter by a user identified as Syombua Kibue on Friday, September 18, the newborn could be seen lying on the ground while exposed to the environment “While Senate and Governors are busy fighting, women who expect services from hospitals like Pumwani are being turned away,” wrote Syombua.
Ng'ombe mbili zikipigana, nyasi huumia.While senate & Governors are busy fighting, women who expect services from hospitals like Pumwani are being turned away, this is not acceptable Not in 2020 Imagine when citizens have to fight to get services at a Government hospital. #Kenya pic.twitter.com/AzmByCVk8n
— Syombua A. Kibue 🇰🇪 (@Syombuak) September 18, 2020
Pumwani Maternity Hospital is still a big problem. How do you turn away a mother at the gate and she is about yo deliver? You let her struggle on the entrance as the baby is about to be delivered? That video is just something else. 💔
— BRAVIN YURI (@BravinYuri) September 18, 2020
“This is not acceptable. Not in 2020 Imagine when citizens have to fight to get services at a government hospital,” she added.
Efforts to samaritans get the hospital management to help the women were futile as the hospital did not immediately respond to their calls.
To draw the attention of the hospital staff, people who had surrounded the woman who was still on the ground started screaming and shouting for the baby to be rescued but it was in vain.
I have watched that video of that lady giving birth outside the gates of Pumwani Maternity Hospital and I'm just defeated… 💔💔 For how long will we sit down and condone state perpetrated violence against women ! That there is obstetric violence caused by your own gvt. 😡😡
— kerigo odada (@k_odada) September 18, 2020
To save the baby, women gathering around the new mom covered it with lesos to protect it from the scorching sun. Internet users called on leaders who demanded respect for mothers when the founding First lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta was attacked to use the same energy to fight for the new mom.
“It is so sickening to imagine this is Kenya, 2020,” wrote Odhiambo Wambura.
“To imagine Kenyans support every other initiative, even by the First Lady, to better the health care system, more so for our mothers, is so disappointing. Such a joke of a government,” he added.
