Kenyatta National Hospital has confirmed that the suspect arrested in connection with the death of a patient in Ward 7B was a long-term patient at the facility. In a statement released on Friday July 18, KNH said; first Kennedy Kalombotole was admitted to the ICU in November 2022 and later moved to the general ward.
Painting the chronology of events the statement detailed that, Kalombotole who was homeless and had no proven identity remained at the hospital for months as efforts to locate relatives or alternative accommodation failed.
”Being a homeless person with no known relatives nor proven identity, he stayed on in the hospital even as the hospital made several attempts to identify him through fingerprint identification and also through our social media pages,” the statement read.
In June 2024, the Hospital was able to secure a home where Kalombotole was discharged too. However, he fell ill in December 2024 and was readmitted to KNH and discharged in January 2025. Upon discharge, the home that previously hosted him declined to take him back for unknown reasons. In the interim Kalombotole remained in KNH as we tried to look for alternative accommodation.
Following the death of patient Gilbert Kinyua, another patient who was killed inside ward 7B the DCI flagged the suspect as a person of interest and they then asked the Hospital to hold him pending the conclusion of their investigations. The Hospital is awaiting the outcome of the previous incident.
”We emphasize that the suspect had been discharged, and the Hospital did not intend or desire to host him indefinitely,” read part of the statement saying in the absence of alternative options and pending direction from investigative agencies, the hospital had no choice but to continue with his stay in the Hospital.
A postmortem examination will be scheduled to determine the exact cause of the patient’s death.
According to KNH it will continue to fully cooperate with the DCI and all relevant investigative bodies and will comply with any recommendations that result from their findings.
