The High Court in Nakuru has dismissed a public interest
petition challenging the financial operations of Rift Valley Provincial General
Hospital.
Justice Joseph Sergon found that Margaret Njeri Muraya
failed to substantiate claims of widespread systemic corruption, illegal
account signatory mandates and financial mismanagement at the public health
facility.
Muraya's petition had claimed that Nakuru county Health
Services chief officer, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital and the
National Bank of Kenya were colluding to divert public funds.
“It is the petitioner’s submission that she had been a
witness to widespread impunity on the part of the respondents,” the court
heard.
“The first and second
respondents [chief officer and superintendent] were accused of acting as the
sole signatories to accounts that hold all the revenue collected by the
hospital in the financial facility managed by the third respondent [bank
manager] which has control over disbursement of public funds yet he is a not a
public servant.”
She sought declarations that the respondents were operating
the hospital's accounts unconstitutionally, an order removing the first and
second respondents from their positions for gross misconduct and a prohibition
restraining the bank from acting as a signatory to the hospital's accounts.
Muraya also accused the respondents of turning the hospital
into "a cash cow and personal fiefdom" through opaque hiring
processes and irregular expenditures.
The petition raised concerns about alleged violations of
various constitutional provisions, including breaches of the County Government
Act and the Public Finance Management Act.
However, the respondents maintained the hospital's financial
operations were conducted in accordance with established legal frameworks.
The first and second respondents submitted that all
collections were deposited into an authorised Facility Improvement Fund Account
managed under County Treasury supervision, with monthly financial statements
and quarterly reports submitted for oversight.
The bank similarly urged the court to throw out the
petition, clarifying that its relationship with the facility was purely a
standard banker-customer arrangement governed by Central Bank of Kenya
prudential guidelines rather than individual control.
In the judgment, Justice Sergon dismissed the suit for lack
of proof.
"The petitioner was bound to tender evidence to
establish the allegations and or complaints directed against the bank, the
third respondent," Justice Sergon stated in his judgment.
"It's unfortunate that the petitioner failed to
discharge the burden of proof."
The court noted that the respondents were able to show that
hospital operations, procurement, recruitment and expenditure were subject to
multiple layers of approval from county departments, the County Treasury and
the County Public Service Board.
"In the end the petitioner's petition is found to be
without merit," Justice Sergon ruled. "The same is dismissed."
The judge declined to award costs, noting that the petition
was a public interest litigation.
"A fair order on costs which I make is that each party should meet its own costs," he said.
