Kisumu Hospital Reopened After Uproar On Banning Male Inpatients

Bernadette Achieng, the acting Medical superintendent at the hospital, added that the development led to a shift in the wards to occupy the empty spaces. 

Kisumu Hospital Reopened After Uproar On Banning Male Inpatients
Male ward at Ahero County Hospital in Kisumu. /DAILY NATION

A hospital in Kisumu County was forced to reopen on Friday, October 28 after uproar ensued over its decision to temporarily suspend the admission of male patients to its ward facility.

A notice by Ahero County Hospital seen by Viral Tea dated Thursday, October 27 revealed that its male ward facility halted admissions over a shortage of nurses.

Bernadette Achieng, the acting Medical superintendent at the hospital, added that the development led to a shift in the wards to occupy the empty spaces. 

Ahero County Hospital in Kisumu County. /FILE

Female patients were moved to the male wards while the paediatric ward took the place of the female ward.

 “Due to the shortage of staff in the nursing department, there will be a temporary closure of the male wards, therefore, there will be no admissions of male patients.

"Consequently, the paediatric ward will shift to the female medical ward and the male medical wards will be occupied by female patients," said Achieng in the memo.

The temporary closure sparked criticism amongst locals and on social media, with Kenyans questioning why such a decision was arrived at, leaving male residents in the area vulnerable and forcing them to come up with ways of not getting sick.

"In Ahero County Hospital, there "will be no admission of male patients" due to a shortage of staff. I don't know whether Governor Anyang’ Nyongo from the great county of Kisumu has seen this," Juma G tweeted.

"Everything is so aligned against the boy child nowadays. In Kisumu County, they have stopped the admission of male patients due to an acute shortage of nurses.

"As things stand today, a man is born knowing he is in a disadvantaged position and has to fight for his place," Kiprono weighed in.

The county director of health Fred Oluoch noted that the decision was outrageous and has since been overturned. Moreover, the inadequacies that affected the hospital were dealt with.

"This was an unfortunate, outrageous memo. It was already reversed. Kindly receive our sincere apologies," he said.

In recent decades, Kenya has put significant attention towards the plight of the girl child through several programmes aimed at giving girls an equal footing in society with their male counterparts.

This includes the fight against teenage pregnancies, early marriages, improved school enrolment and transition to secondary school which have placed the girl child at the forefront of many government policies as they are seen as the weaker and vulnerable gender and incapable of defending themselves.

All these have been done with the aim of giving the girl child a voice in a society that has been accused of having been more favourable to the boy child since time immemorial. However, the move to correct a historical injustice where the girl child has for years suffered marginalisation has led to the neglect of the boychild.

With the unfounded belief that men or boys are naturally strong and do not need to be given a voice by anyone, the boy child has in the process been left to grapple with modern life challenges in solitude. The overprotection of the girl child instead of achieving the desired gender equity has created a new problem in society that is now a ticking time bomb.

Various male personalities have been working hard to salvage the boy child from the confining and confusing world they currently find themselves. This is through imparting good values to them right from when they are young, being present in their lives, instilling a good work ethic and giving them affection just like girls to be emotionally stable, and instilling peer-resistant decision-making skills, among others.

One of the popular examples of this is Eric Amunga, a Bungoma-based doctor popularly known as Amerix, whose #MasculinitySaturday segment on Twitter has gained popularity across Kenya.

A portrait image of Eric Amunga, alias Amerix. /FILE