Nairobi News

Nairobi Hospital’s shareholders have secured a meeting that will vote for the ouster of the top private hospital’s directors, deepening the wrangles that led to last week’s sacking of its CEO.

More than half of the members of Kenya Hospital Association (KHA), which owns the hospital, drafted a petition that forced the board to call the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

The agenda of the meeting is the removal of seven directors, including the board chairman John Simba and his deputy Coutts Otolo — a former Mumias Sugar Company chief executive.

The petition was sent to the firm on February 19 weeks after the hospital suspended its chief executive, Gordon Odundo, who was eventually sacked last Wednesday.

The EGM will be held on May 15. The shareholders seeking a new board have proposed the names of nine directors to fill the vacant positions.

GIDEON MOI’S WIFE

The nine include lawyer Richard Omwela, Zahra Moi, wife of Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, architect Otieno Odongo, former MP Chris Bichage and Jeremy Ngunze, the chief executive of CBA Bank Kenya.

“This notice of convention has been signed by over 50 per cent of members of KHA who signed the petition for requisition for the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM),” said a notice from KHA.

Nairobi Hospital did not respond to e-mail questions on the voting threshold needed to oust the board.

There was a previous attempt to recall the doctors’ representatives on the board “for not championing the rights of their colleagues”.

The February 19 letter came just weeks after Kenyans came to know all is not well at Nairobi Hospital.

On December 14, 2018, the CEO stayed put in his office for hours as a lawyer camped outside to deliver a suspension letter.

The hospital would later announce that Mr Odundo had been sent on a 90-day leave to allow the completion of a forensic audit.

Last Wednesday, the board said Mr Odundo had been sacked following “consideration of all the relevant factors pertaining to the office”.