Commentaries

Kenya: Mission Hospital Appeals for Funds

One of the largest Catholic hospitals in western Kenya is facing a financial crunch that could cripple its operations, following the withdrawal of an annual government grant. "The actual situation is very difficult financially because we no longer get the support we used to get in the beginning from the government," Fr Francesco Spagnolo, the director of St Cammilus Tabaka Mission Hospital told CISA.

The 291-bed hospital, located 400 kilometres southwest of the capital, Nairobi, is run by the Camillian Missionaries (Servants of the Sick) on behalf of the Diocese of Kisii. It is the only major hospital in Gucha District, and receives patients from at least four other neighbouring districts.

" From the beginning, the hospital received a government grant every year through the Kenya Catholic Secretariat (KCS), and this helped greatly, together with the contribution of benefactors overseas. But later this grant began to diminish until it finally stopped," Fr Spagnolo explained. Opened in 1973, the hospital also runs a nursing school and nine mobile clinics in a poor region that is one of the country's worst-hit malaria zones. Its expenditures in 2003 totalled KShs 80.3 million (approx. US$ 1million).