Death at the Maternity and Arrest of Bunge Members

Fellow Citizens,

Elizabeth Ajwang, A 28 year old pregnant mother of one and loving wife to Moses Oduor, died on Monday morning in her husband's arms while waiting to be attended to at Huruma Nursing Home. They had gone to the facility at 9:00 pm on the previous night with Elizabeth at the early stages of her labour pains and a slowly rising blood pressure due to her hypertension.

Though there are varying accounts of exactly what happened at the facility in regards to why she had not been attended to; with some saying that the nurses attempted to administer the wrong treatment, some, that the doctor was away on another case, others, that they had refused to pay extra for the "emergency" nature of the situation, the fact of the matter is that by 5:00 am on the 28th of February 2011, Elizabeth Ajwang lay dead on a stretcher without having received sufficient medical attention at the nursing home.

Brewing Injustice

The outcry that followed was expected, but the reaction from the authorities was unacceptable and unconstitutional. 

As the residents of the area quickly gathered around the venue of the incident in the wee hours of the morning, their anger grew when it emerged that Elizabeth's case was one among three as there were two other bodies being removed from the Nursing home and being taken to the mortuary.

It is here that two members of Bunge Women’s Movement along with two men from the locality, who had joined the residents of the area to complain about the repeated and un-investigated cases of Maternal Mortality at this facility, found themselves in circumstances that led to their being at the remand facilities of Langata Women's Prison and Industrial Area Remand. They had been arrested at the venue after standing their ground when police from the local Huruma Police Post, reinforced by personnel from the nearby Kasarani area, rained in to disperse the gathered crowd after being called in by the nursing home's owners.  

The four were held over-night at the police post and were yesterday taken to Makadara Law Courts where they were charged with the trumped up charges of incitement to violence and attempted arson and a punitive bond of Kshs 30,000/-placed on each one of them.

As of last night,  Victoria Atieno, Ruth Mumbi, Ali Aithe Chande and Joseph Njuguna, faced their second night on cold hard floors for simply leading the marginalized residents of Kiamaiko slums in demanding to know why, despite the guarantees in Article 43 of the constitution, their right to health care services, especially, the unconditional access to emergency medical treatment, was being grossly violated and the government was doing nothing about it.

They wanted to know why the government was watching them die! 

Why Is the State Still The Enemy of the People?

It is evident that despite changes in the Constitution of Kenya, institutions of the state are still conspiring against the people to keep them in ignorance and fear.

Why won't the Ministry of Medical Services act on such facilities, which are operating under their licensing yet are dens of open un-professionalism and clear neglect and are leading to the high cases of maternal deaths which are well documented in government reports?

Why should the police always act with such bestiality against its own peaceful citizens whenever they ask for accountability and how come they don't focus on the culprits even when it is crystal clear who the violators are? Why are the police defending the criminals? Are they on the take?

Why does our justice system feign blindness when poor and unrepresented people are on the stand and punishes them with its undue processes which can imprison one for several years even when the circumstances of the case do not warrant such punishment? Is this a method of extortion?

And why won’t the government at large protect its own citizens using the very constitution that brings it into being? Is this an unconstitutional government or is it that the state is the enemy of the people?

How many of our sisters and brothers are we going to lose to injustice before we act?

For now, we hold the Government of Kenya responsible for the death of Elizabeth Ajwang!

May justice be served within our borders!

2nd March, 2011.