Kakamega Catholic Bishop Joseph Obanyi has dismissed claims by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi that St Mary’s Mission Hospital in Mumias received Sh82 million from the Social Health Authority (SHA). According to the Bishop, the hospital has only received Sh9 million since June, strictly allocated to its renal unit, and not for broader hospital operations.
Speaking in Kakamega, Bishop Obanyi said the figures quoted by Mudavadi were misleading and did not reflect the dire financial reality at the mission facility, which recently shut down due to lack of funds.
“Since June this year up to now, we may have received about Sh9 million, which is designated for the renal unit. The hospital itself has not received any money, as claimed from the SHA, which would easily go to the patients,” Obanyi clarified.
His remarks came after Mudavadi, during a burial in Malava, asserted that the government had already disbursed Sh82 million to the hospital out of a pending Sh117 million. Mudavadi suggested that the facility’s challenges could be linked to internal mismanagement rather than insufficient government support.
“The hospital has been paid Sh82 million out of Sh117 million. If they want to argue, we are ready to produce evidence of how much they received in November and December last year. If there was mismanagement at that hospital, they should not drag the whole nation into it,” Mudavadi stated.
However, Bishop Obanyi pushed back strongly, urging leaders to avoid politicizing the issue and instead focus on solutions to revive the century-old institution that has long served poor communities.
“Talking about Sh82 million has been disbursed, then the hospital is still closed, is cheap politics. We need the money and then we will revive. It’s not a government hospital, it’s a mission hospital that serves poor people. So we cannot make politics out of that,” the Bishop said.
He attributed the closure directly to financial strain, with staff going unpaid and operations suspended. The shutdown has left a significant healthcare gap in Mumias and its environs, sparking fresh debate over accountability and government support for faith-based health institutions.
