Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) has unveiled a new, fully equipped pediatric operating theatre, in a Sh50 million partnership between the County Government of Mombasa and international charity Kids Operating Room (KidsOR), aimed at expanding access to safe and specialised surgery for children across the coast region.
Speaking during the launch, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Sharif Nassir said the facility, fitted with innovative “Solar Surgery” technology to guard against power outages during operations, was part of a broader push to make quality healthcare accessible to every child in the county, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
“The county government made a deliberate decision that no child under five should go untreated because of a parent’s lack of finances. When a parent walks in with their child, we register the parent and pay for the child, and where the premiums are not enough, the county takes over the remaining bill,” said Nassir.
The Governor said the investment, which covers equipment and three years of maintenance support, would significantly boost the hospital’s capacity to handle complex pediatric cases, adding that KidsOR’s global work across 40 countries has already created surgical capacity for nearly 200,000 children annually.
He linked the theatre unveiling to wider county reforms in health, including a digitisation drive expected to roll out by September to cut patient waiting times, and the deployment of over 2,500 Community Health Promoters who visit households to support early diagnosis and treatment.
Governor Nassir added that the county was also sponsoring Social Health Authority (SHA) premiums for residents who cannot afford them, through the Facility Improvement Fund.
The Governor said the county was also renovating the entire hospital, from wards to sanitation facilities, ahead of plans to add more operating theatres.
“Health is not a privilege for the rich. Health should be universal, as envisioned in the Constitution,” said Nassir.
KidsOR Chief Executive David Cunningham said the charity, which supports pediatric theatres in 140 hospitals worldwide, selects partner hospitals based on the quality of local medical teams, which he said Mombasa has in abundance.
“I heard this morning about one of the first patients whose life was saved because of the equipment. A small child who had a foreign object stuck in their airway when the power went out. Because the solar surgery system was in place, that child’s life was saved,” said Cunningham, describing it as the first of many lives the unit would save.
CGTRH Acting CEO Dr. Saumu Wayuwa Salim said the theatre had been fitted with new surgical equipment and child-friendly artwork to ease anxiety among young patients ahead of procedures, and thanked the hospital’s pediatric surgical team for steering the project to completion.
County Executive Committee Member for Water, Natural Resources and Climate Change Resilience, Emily Achieng Okello termed the theatre’s solar power component a boost to the county’s green building agenda.
By Ramadhan Nassib
