Patient shot dead at Mwingi Level Four Hospital

Patients at Mwingi Level Four Hospital are now fearing for their lives after a 27-year-old patient was shot dead Thursday morning in his hospital bed by unknown assailants.

The assailants are reported to have invaded the Surgical Ward where the patient was undergoing treatment and sprayed him with bullets in front of his sister, who had come to visit him, before fleeing.

The patient, Fredrick Ngandi – a businessman based in Kitui Town, is said to have been kidnapped from his house at Majengo in Kitui Town  by two men who identified themselves as police officers.

He was then blindfolded and driven towards Garissa.

On reaching the Sosoma junction, he was shot three times before being abandoned in the bush.

Ngandi, however, managed to walk up to the Garissa – Mwingi Road and was assisted by a well-wisher who took him to Ukasi Police Station.

The police visited the scene of crime before taking him to Mwingi Hospital where he was admitted 7:00pm Wednesday.

The assailants are now believed to have come back after their first attempt to kill him failed.

According to an eye witness who sought anonymity, two ladies, who identified themselves as close relatives of the deceased, arrived at the hospital at around 11:00pm after his admission and sought to talk to him.

The motive behind the killing is yet to be established with police having launched investigations as they pursue the killers.

However, Ken Mwangi – a nurse at the hospital and an official at the Kenya National Union of Nurses, the incidence could have been averted if the concerns of nurses dealing with the patient had been addressed.

Mwangi said that security of nurses in the hospital is already at stake following the incident.

He called upon the administration of the hospital, together with Mwingi police, to beef security in the hospital in order to cater for the welfare of nurses, especially those who work at night.

Report by Shadrack Ilava