The controversy surrounding the death of baby Travis Maina has taken a new twist.
Kenyatta National Hospital on Tuesday said the two-year-old, who had a fork jembe lodged in his head, could have been a victim of a fight involving his parents.
KNH CEO Evanson Kamuri told the Senate Health Committee that Judy Muthoni, the mother, after learning about the death of her son wailed saying the jembe had been aimed at her by the husband.
“It is something that should be investigated more by another body. When we broke the news of the death of the baby, the mother started to shout in distress about how the husband had killed her baby,” he said.
The CEO said doctors who attended to Maina doubted whether the boy sustained the injury while playing with others.
“It was a severe injury that could not have been inflicted by other children while playing. That woman needs to come out clear on what exactly happened. We are very sorry for what happened but we have also been asking ourselves what happened,” he told the committee.
The senate team was led by committee chairperson Jackson Mandago and the hospital was represented by Kamuri, KNH board chairperson George Ooko and a team of surgeons.
Kamuri said the woman was not sincere about the time the injury occurred.
“When we took the baby to the theatre, we realized that the jembe had been lodged in the head for much longer than what the woman said. We could tell this from the amount of pus that had accumulated at the wound,” he said.
He said Muthoni first took her son to a pharmacy, where she was advised to rush to the hospital.
The CEO further accused Muthoni of lying about being asked to pay Sh20,000 before the baby could be attended to.
He said Muthoni was only told how much she would need to have, as it is usually the case when someone is processing admission.
“We do not ask for money especially for emergency cases because we look at their survival. Most of my clients do not pay, and won't pay even after treatment. There is some Sh7 billion which has not been paid to the hospital as of now,” Kamuri said.
