The County Government of Bungoma & 3 Others Versus J O O (also known as J M) & 2 Others
Civil Appeal No. 61 of 2018| In the Court of Appeal at Kisumu |Judgement Delivered on 23rd February 2024 by (Coram: Kiage, Tuiyo & Joel Ngugi, JJ.A)
In August 2013, a woman named J O O (hereina er, Josephine) was admitted for childbirth at the Bungoma County Referral Hospital, then known as Bungoma District Hospital. The hospital was so full that she had to share a bed with another patient. She also had to buy medicine and cotton wool despite the Presidential directive that maternity services should be free in public health facilities. She was not properly attended to by the nurses and ended up giving birth on the floor in the hospital corridor without any help.
Josphine led a lawsuit against the Bungoma County Government, the County Cabinet Secretary for Health, and the hospital for violating her right to maternal healthcare, dignity, and information as enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya and international instruments. In March 2018, the High Court at Bungoma delivered a judgement awarding Josphine Kshs. 2,500,000 compensation as a result of the infringement of her rights. Additionally, the Court held that the neglect Josphine suffered was as a result of the National and County Government’s failure to ensure the availability of quality healthcare services, failure to develop and implement healthcare policy guidelines and failure to implement and monitor the standards of free maternal health care and services, resulting to mistreatment and violation of the right to dignity, and treatment that is devoid of cruelty, inhuman and not degrading.
Aggrieved by the High Court decision, the Bungoma County Government, County Cabinet Secretary for Health and the hospital led an appeal at the Court of Appeal.