As others flee, Kenyan hospital fights to survive

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Kenyan mission town of Kijabe is, for now, safe from the killing that has torn the nation apart since its presidential election. But a children’s hospital there is fighting for its life. The hospital faces a dire reality of displaced patients and dwindling funds. Increased cost and danger […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The Kenyan mission town of Kijabe is, for now, safe from the killing that has torn the nation apart since its presidential election.

But a children’s hospital there is fighting for its life.


The hospital faces a dire reality of displaced patients and dwindling funds. Increased cost and danger have made it difficult for the institution to find patients with its mobile clinics in war-torn areas.

“We can’t send our clinics into areas that aren’t safe,” said Mark Bush, chief operating officer of CURE International, “or where there’s not enough fuel or food.”

CURE International, a Christian non-profit organization, runs hospitals for disabled children in eight countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Malawi. The 30-bed hospital in Kijabe is also a training center for orthopedic surgeons.

The conflict, which started with the alleged rigging of the presidential election in late December, continues to rage on in some parts of the country. What started as a political dispute has flared into a tribal war between the Kikuya, the tribe of President Mwai Kibaki, and the Luo, the tribe of opposition party leader Raila Odinga.

Though Kibaki and Odinga are in the process of negotiations, reports of a proposed power-sharing deal were premature, according to an Associated Press report on Friday.

Established humanitarian aid organizations, such as the Peace Corps, and church missionaries have fled because of safety concerns. Meanwhile, the CURE hospital stays and continues its work, despite growing financial hardships.

“All of the aid money is going to the displaced people,” Jack Muthui, executive director of the Kenya facility, said in a phone interview. “We are seen as less important now.”

Some 300,000 people have fled their homes, and about 1,000 people have been killed, according to Bernard Barrett, spokesman for International Committee of the Red Cross in Kenya.


In an effort to keep its doors open, CURE’s hospital in Kenya is reaching out to its American donors.

About 50 percent of the institution’s funding comes from Kenyan sponsors and organizations _ money that has slowed to a trickle with the current unrest. Most of the rest of the money comes from private donors and organizations in the United States.

CURE is hoping these donors can help them survive a conflict that Muthui said could drag on for six months or a year “before people return to their homes and things become normal.”

Founded in 1998, the Kijabe hospital is CURE’s oldest and cares for children with congenital abnormalities. It usually treats around 8,000 children a year, suffering from such disorders as cleft palate, club foot and spinal curvature. The hospital is recognized by the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa as a licensed training center, and they perform about 2,500 surgeries per year.

The surgeries are considered “elective” because the disabilities are not immediately life-threatening, but they are extremely important for the well-being of the children, said CURE International’s Mark Bush.

“These kids are basically shunned from their families and considered cursed by the tribal cultures,” Bush said. If not corrected, their disabilities also limit their opportunities for marriage and employment, he said.


The hospital is currently running at about 40 percent of its normal operation, Bush said.

As the value of the Kenyan shilling has gone down, operating costs have gone up. The money has also slowed because many of the donations come on a per-surgery basis, and a number of potential patients have been displaced from their homes.

“People are leaving their homes because they are scared of the revenge killings,” Muthui said.

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The multi-tribal hospital staff has also been affected by the conflict. Seven staff members, including two nurses, left because they are of the president’s Kikuya tribe, and were fearful of being attacked.

Many of those who have not left have had to house family members from areas more volatile than Kijabe.

“It has been very difficult,” said Christine Kithome, the hospital’s spiritual director. “I have had to provide for eight additional people in my house.”


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Despite the many different tribes represented within the staff of the Kijabe hospital, the workers are united in their Christian faith, Muthui said. It is their faith that will carry them through the conflict, he said.

“If you go out on the streets, it is the same,” Muthui said. “People have given up on man, on any country, to bring us peace.”

“Only God can save us.”

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A photo of patients at the Kijabe hospital is available via https://religionnews.com.

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