By Abdimalik Hajir - Reporter
30 April 2026 - Misal Abdi Muhumed still hears the fading breaths of her young nephew, a sound that now haunts her days and nights.
The baby died on her lap inside a faulty ambulance.
A journey that was supposed to promptly deliver the patient to Garissa Referral Hospital for specialised treatment ended up taking a whole nine hours, with a dead patient and dejected family failed by the very system that was supposed to save their infant.
What should have been a desperate race to save him turned into a nightmare journey, plagued by repeated mechanical failures and the absence of even a basic spare tyre.
The delays proved fatal.
Without a paramedic, she narrated how she struggled to keep the oxygen mask from falling off the victim’s face while they made several stopovers, with the driver single-handedly trying to fix the defective tyre.
“We had spent three nights at the MSF hospital at Dagahley with the baby before they told us he needed a referral. We looked for an ambulance to ferry him to Garissa and there was none in sight. After some calls, we were able to get one from Hagadera but at a fee,” she said.
According to the family, they live in Ifo refugee camp, but the MSF hospital at Dagahley is better equipped than other health facilities in the camps, hence they were initially referred there.
The infant had diarrhoea and, according to Misal, had been vomiting blood before he died on the way to hospital.
“Immediately we started the journey, the driver kept stopping. He told me the tyres of the vehicle had issues. I was sitting next to him with the baby on my lap while the baby’s mother and father were at the back of the ambulance,” she said at her mother’s home in Bula Mzuri, Garissa town.
“I couldn’t sleep for three nights. My arms felt heavy, perhaps from carrying my dead nephew on them,” she tearfully explained.
A Good Samaritan who recorded the entire journey on his cellphone until the death of the infant said that immediately he reached the ambulance on the outskirts of Dadaab, he realised there was a problem and decided to accompany them.
He confirmed Misal’s account that the ambulance was assisted by police officers stationed at Hagarbul, who provided a tyre to replace the faulty one, but the vehicle still had other mechanical issues.
“When I realised it had critical patients and so many mechanical issues, I decided to accompany them. This is very unfortunate. The county needs to do something about this,” said the Good Samaritan, who declined to be identified since he works with agencies operating in Dadaab refugee camps.
Misal said that at Hagarbul, they were assisted by police who helped them with a spare tyre to at least get them to Garissa.
However, after a few kilometres, the baby died.
She said her sister was too weak to handle the deteriorating health of her baby, having lost yet another child, and that is why she was forced to hold the baby until his last breath.
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This incident has brought the county government and the health department’s referral system under close scrutiny, revealing that ambulances are not being regularly serviced and that some have been grounded due to lack of maintenance.
Ambulances, according to a source within the health department, are categorised into two types: one is hired from the Kenya Red Cross’s emergency services (E-Plus), while the other is owned by the county government.
Garissa County has hired at least five ambulances from the Red Cross and distributed them to five sub-counties, including Hulugho, Balambala, Garissa Township, Dadaab and Modogashe.
According to the source, these particular ambulances are well maintained, with their own paramedics and allowances taken care of by the Red Cross.
However, the ambulances that are meant to be maintained by the county are in poor condition, with two of them currently grounded at Masalani Level Four Hospital due to inadequate maintenance.
Another ambulance belonging to Dertu is wasting away at Garissa Referral Hospital.
The one that ferried the baby from Dagahley belongs to upper Fafi (Jarajila ward), including Alinjgur, Welmarer, Yumbis and others.
The hard-hit areas include lower Fafi and the entire Masalani ward.
“If there is an emergency today in Galmagala, an ambulance has to come from Garissa town where its availability is not guaranteed,” said another officer who declined to be named because he works with the department and fears reprisals.
According to Garissa County’s programme budget, the county allocates 30% of its total budget to the health sector.
Of the total health budget, 99.5% was funded by the Government, while 0.5% came from donors and partners such as DANIDA.
The budget distribution was 88% for recurrent expenditure and 12% for development projects.In the financial year 2025/2026, the county projects the health department’s budget to be KSh 3.9 billion, comprising the following allocations: KSh 2.4 billion for salaries, KSh 849 million for health commodities and supplies, referral services and operational expenses, and KSh 640 million for health infrastructure projects.
Out of the county health budget, the county government has allocated KSh 46,935,485 to referral and emergency services, making a sharp focus on the importance of the referral mechanism to the department.
Reached for comment, Ahmednathir Omar, the CEC in charge of health, promised to issue a detailed statement regarding the state of ambulances in the county, but by the time of going to press he had not responded.