The M-Pesa Foundation has commenced construction of a Sh98 million paediatric and neonatal intensive care complex at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), a project expected to significantly expand access to specialised child critical care services across the Lake Region.
Domiciled at the JOOTRH’s Obama Children’s Hospital, the project will include a fully equipped Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), with JOOTRH contributing an additional Sh25 million to enhance the scope and quality of the facility.
Safaricom Foundation chairman Joseph Ogutu said the investment was informed by the enormous demand for specialised child critical care services in a region serving an estimated 10 million people.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Ogutu said under the plan, the facility will comprise an eight-bed paediatric ICU and a nine-bed neonatal ICU, alongside consultation rooms, a pharmacy, boardrooms and supporting clinical spaces.
Ogutu said the foundation would not only finance construction but also ensure the units are fully equipped to meet modern critical care standards.
“This hospital serves a very large catchment area and is already highly congested. We believe this facility will be a game changer for neonatal and paediatric care and will help ease the burden faced by children and mothers who currently struggle to access specialised services,” he said.
He noted that the proposal was fast-tracked after Safaricom’s technical teams established the scale of unmet need in the region, adding that the foundation looked forward to returning to Kisumu to commission the facility once completed.
Speaking during the same occasion, Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o said the project addressed a long-standing structural gap in Kenya’s public health system, where paediatric and neonatal critical care has lagged behind adult ICU expansion.
He told the gathering that the Lake Region Economic Bloc, with a population of nearly 15 million people, has for years lacked adequate public-sector paediatric intensive care capacity, forcing families to seek treatment in Nairobi or Eldoret.
“Nationally, fewer than 20 functional public pediatric ICU beds exist, and most of them are concentrated in Nairobi. When referrals fail, children are treated in adult ICUs or general wards using equipment not designed for them,” Prof Nyong’o said.
He cited sobering statistics showing that nearly one-third of pediatric deaths in the region occur within 24 hours of admission, often due to delayed access to specialised care, while conditions such as malaria, sepsis and sickle-cell crises require continuous monitoring that is rarely available.
The governor described the Safaricom partnership as a strategic social investment, aligned with the county’s broader plan to strengthen critical care through improved infrastructure, specialised human resources and appropriate technology.
“No child should have to travel to Nairobi or Eldoret to survive a treatable condition,” he said, adding that the project reaffirmed JOOTRH’s position as the leading referral facility in the region.
JOOTRH Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Joshua Clinton Okise said the new PICU and NICU were central to the hospital’s ambition of becoming a centre of excellence for medical services in East and Central Africa.
He noted that JOOTRH currently receives patients not only from counties within the Lake Region Economic Bloc but also from Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Somalia, and occasionally as far as Nairobi and the Coast.
“This facility is not just for this region. We are positioning JOOTRH as a referral hub for East and Central Africa, and specialised neonatal and paediatric intensive care is a critical part of that journey,” Dr Okise said.
He assured the foundation and partners that the hospital was already preparing to operationalise the unit immediately upon completion, including training medical personnel and recruiting specialised staff.
Dr Okise said by October, when the unit is expected to be ready, JOOTRH will have put in place paediatric intensivists, specialised nurses and support staff, noting that neonatal and paediatric intensive care requires highly trained teams and continuous staffing.
Obama Children’s Hospital head Dr Lollah Molla said the project would close a major care gap in a region that currently lacks a dedicated paediatric ICU, despite heavy referral pressure from surrounding counties.
As a newly designated Level 6A facility, JOOTRH, she said, receives referrals from at least eight neighbouring counties, yet currently operates with only six paediatric critical care beds, occasionally stretching to ten due to overwhelming demand.
“We are doing a disservice to children when we cannot provide the specialised services they require. The patients are here, the staff is here; what has been missing is the centre itself,” Dr Molla said.
Dr Molla revealed that the building has been designed with future expansion in mind, allowing additional floors later to eventually house a comprehensive paediatric complex.
“This is more than a building. It is a foundation for a referral centre of excellence for paediatrics in the Lake Region,” she said.
Once completed, the PICU and NICU are expected to significantly improve survival outcomes for critically ill newborns and children, reduce long-distance referrals and strengthen JOOTRH’s role as a teaching, research and referral hospital serving western Kenya and the wider region.
By Chris Mahandara
