Senate launch probe into the death of child who died with fork jembe lodged in the head at KNH

The Senate Health Committee has launched a probe into the death of Travis Maina, a two-year-old who died at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) who had a fork jembe lodged in his head for over 24 hours.

The committee led by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago, said that it intends to discover faults that may have caused the death of the child.

The committee said that it would invite several witnesses including the child’s parents, to the Thika level 5 hospital where the child was treated firstly before being taken to the KNH.

“The committee will investigate policy issues, especially in the hospitals that treated the child to find out if there was negligence,” Mandago said.

According to reports, in the process of playing with other children, the two-year-old was hit in the head by a jembe by one of the children.

Unfortunately, at KNH the patient developed complications while in theatre and efforts to resuscitate him were futile.

According to the hospital, clinical examinations and investigations on the patient, including CT scans and blood tests confirmed penetrating injury into the brain, brain swelling with ongoing bleeding and possible infection.

The family had claimed that the hospital failed to treat the boy’s case as an emergency delaying an operation to remove the fork from the minor’s head for nearly 24 hours, eliciting an angry reaction from netizens.