Agony for families after losing newborns amid doctors' strike

Amid the push and pull between Kiambu County Government and county doctors, a painful healthcare crisis is unfolding with expectant mothers and residents lacking access to quality services in public hospitals. 

For over four months now, several families have been languishing in pain as they mourn the loss of their newborn babies, which they attribute to the ongoing doctors’ strike, now on its 134th day.  

In the sweltering mid-morning heat, Alfred Kagika goes about his business at a construction site in Kiambu town, where he fends for his family. But, he appeared disturbed-evidently lost in thoughts as the pain of losing his first born child, a daughter, who he had waited with baited breath, lingered through his mind. 

“I was prepared to welcome her. We had bought clothes and everything,” Mr Kagika told The Standard.

He said his wife, Mercy Munyiva, was admitted at Kiambu Level 5 hospital on August 29, gave birth on 30, and lost the baby four days later.

“The baby was placed in a nursery. She then developed developed breathing complications,” he recounted, blaming the death of his newborn on the doctors’ strike.  “Doctors were not there. We were attended to by interns. They looked helpless just like us.” 

“For months, I had toiled and moiled for preparing for the coming of my first born. I am deeply hurt. I’m in pain,” said Kagika, looking deeply troubled and dejected. 

His wife, Munyiva, whom The Standard found appearing beaten by the loss, went about her daily chores in the lonely house that would otherwise been lit by the joy of a newborn. “My baby died when doctors were not there. I had expected she could survive,” she said. “It’s interns who were attending to the newborns.” 

“I am not at peace,” she lamented, revealing that there are other three mothers who lost their new borns during the same period. 

KMPDU Deputy Secretary General, Dr Dennis Miskellah, speaking to The Standard said the union will join their colleagues in Kiambu during an industrial action scheduled on Monday, next week to push to the resolution of the issues by the county government. 

“We are going to do a national strike  on all healthcare workers, until the county government and national government decide  whether they want to address our issues or they want to play politics with our lives,” he said. 

The strike had earlier been slated for Wednesday, this week, but has been pushed to Monday “to allow for mobilisation as had been requested by our colleagues in the county.” 

Last Friday, the county leadership refuted the figure as false” and “sensationalised,” saying “just 110” new born babies have died. 

“These claims are false and aimed at creating a crisis that is nonexistent in the health sector in Kiambu,” the county said in a statement. 

On Monday, KMPDU Secretary General Dr Davji Atellah termed the statement by the council’s chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi as ‘contemptuous and heartless’.

“The CoG’s attempt to dismiss the tragic and documented deaths of 131 newborns in Kiambu County as “pure mischief” and a “false publication” is not merely a distortion of fact, it is a grotesque display of indifference, political malice, and a shameful dereliction of their duty to protect life,” said Atellah.

“The CoG must withdraw its false statement and issue an unreserved public apology to the families of the 131 deceased children and to the Kenyan public,” he said.

Dismissed assertion by the governors that health services in Kiambu are functional and that doctors are on duty terming as indifference for “mothers mourning in silence”.

Instead, Atellah urged the governors to immediately “cease the public relations war” and engage KMPDU leadership immediately and in good faith to restore functionality in Kiambu’s health system and across all affected counties.

“A transparent, independent, and public inquiry must be launched into the 131 documented neonatal deaths to ensure full accountability for all culpable officials,” said the union Secretary General.

“The President must dissolve the Kiambu County Government for gross failure and criminal negligence in managing the county’s health sector,” he added.

The union further warned that to go a national strike on October 25,2025 in solidarity with their Kiambu colleagues.

“Based on your collective action to perpetuate injustice and defend impunity, the Kenyan doctors too will take collective action in solidarity with their Kiambu colleagues through the issuance of a National Strike Notice on 25th October 2025 to protect the dignity of the medical profession and to defend the sanctity of life and healthcare in Kenya,” said Atellah.

 “The death of a single child is a national tragedy. The deliberate denial of 131 preventable deaths by those in power is a national disgrace. The Governors must remember that their mandate is to serve not to preside over preventable deaths and then use their offices to deny reality,” said the KMPDU boss.