Closed 94-Year-Old Catholic Hospital in Kenya to Reopen “once unpaid salaries issues are addressed”: Bishop Obanyi

Kakamega, 22 January, 2026 / 2:58 AM

The reopening of St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital, the 94-year-old health facility of he Catholic Diocese of Kakamega in Kenya, which suspended operations in early July 2025 can only occur after outstanding staff salaries are paid and sustainable income streams are secured, the Local Ordinary of the Kenyan Episcopal See has said.

In a video recording, which the Kenya Television Networks (KTN) published on Tuesday, January 20, Bishop Joseph Obanyi Sagwe recalled the circumstances leading to the closure of the health facility and said that the reopening will be realized in phases. 

“Medical services were suspended at St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital following a workers’ strike caused by the non-payment of salaries. At this point, we intend for the hospital to begin reopening in phases,” Bishop Obanyi said. 

However, “the reopening can only happen once the issues of unpaid salaries are addressed and additional sources of income are secured, including reimbursements from Social Health Authority (SHA),” he emphasized, referring to Kenya’s health insurance scheme “designed to provide healthcare services from empaneled and contracted healthcare providers and healthcare facilities on referral from primary health facilities.” 

“We fully uphold the hospital’s identity as a mission hospital. A mission hospital exists primarily to serve patients, especially the poor and the vulnerable, and that is why it is known as St. Mary’s Mission Hospital,” the Kenyan Catholic Bishops added.

Beyond the phased reopening that Bishop Obanyi outlined in the KTN-published video recording, the Local Ordinary of Kakamega had offered ACI Africa additional details on how his Episcopal See intends to restart operations and rebuild the Mission Hospital structurally, financially, and pastorally, once the immediate salary arrears are resolved.

In the 29 December 2025 interview, Bishop Obanyi said that the closure of the hospital provided an opportunity for sober reflection and institutional reset rather than a temporary disruption. 

“Even this period of closure helps us all to reflect,” he told ACI Africa, adding, “So, it’s not wasted time.” According to him, reopening would not simply mean resuming past operations but implementing a fundamentally different model of governance and service delivery.

Central to this new approach is a deliberate effort to restore what he described as the hospital’s “Catholic ethos,” which Bishop Obanyi said had been gradually eroded over the years. 

Reflecting on the circumstances that led to the staff walkout, Bishop Obanyi observed that the crisis exposed deeper concerns about values and mission. “Remember, it was because of being paid that we had people walking out leaving patients, which means they don’t even have the Catholic ethos,” he lamented. 

To address this, the Local Ordinary of Kakamega Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in March 2015 told ACI Africa that women Religious would play a central role in the reopening process. 

“I intend to start with my own Sisters, Sisters of Mary of Kakamega (SMK),” he said, explaining that members of the Congregation are professionally qualified and strongly committed to the Church’s vision of service. He disclosed that discussions with the SMK’s leadership were already underway. 

According to Bishop Obanyi, the presence of members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is not merely symbolic but foundational to rebuilding trust and identity. “Their presence alone is able to instil a bit of confidence,” he said, noting that professional staff could later be integrated “without losing our own grip and identity.” 

He also reiterated that reopening plans must be grounded in financial realism. In the interview, he detailed how an unsustainable wage bill, combined with delayed and inadequate reimbursements from SHA, had crippled the hospital. With about 260 workers, the hospital’s monthly salary costs alone stood at approximately KES 9 million (US$ 70,250.00), while total monthly expenditure reached KES 18 million (US$140,500.00). “If you don’t have patients in the wards and other services, but you must pay the workers KES 9 million per month… what do you expect?” he asked.

Because of this imbalance, Kakamega Diocese opted to declare redundancy, a decision Bishop Obanyi described as painful but unavoidable. “We declared redundancy … so that practically we don’t have anybody in terms of staff,” he said, explaining that this step created space to restructure operations and plan a sustainable restart while addressing outstanding dues.

Looking ahead, Bishop Obanyi told ACI Africa that his Diocese was cautiously targeting January 2026 as a possible window for reopening, subject to legal and logistical considerations. “By the end of January 2026, we’ll have probably come up with a modality of reopening,” he said, emphasizing that the timeline depended on resolving salary arrears and establishing viable income streams.

The Bishop also placed the hospital’s struggles within a broader socio-economic context, pointing to the collapse of Mumias Sugar Factory as a major external factor. The factory, once the economic backbone of the region, had provided a steady flow of patients and revenue, he explained. 

While acknowledging management gaps over the years, Bishop Obanyi downplayed them as the primary cause of the crisis. “For me, it’s neither here nor there,” he said, describing the problems instead as “a cross-section of gaps” compounded by structural and economic shifts.

Despite the setbacks, the native of Kenya’s Kisii Catholic Diocese expressed hope, framing the closure as a turning point rather than an endpoint. He described the experience as “a wake-up call” for Catholic health institutions to reassess their priorities and fidelity to mission. “What I think myself now is to restore our health facilities to be the mission health facilities that they were,” he said.

In a message to the local community that has relied on St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital for generations, Bishop Obanyi urged patience and trust. “For the people who have basically always relied on Mumias hospital, I wish to tell them, don’t lose hope,” he told ACI Africa on December 29, and expressing confidence in a renewed beginning, added, “We are going to begin and begin well.”

Founded in 1932 by members of the Ursuline Sisters of Bergen in the Netherlands, St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital began as a modest missionary health facility serving the people of God in Western Kenya.

Its early growth in the 1940s saw the construction of semi-permanent structures, followed by the first permanent building in 1960, now the hospital’s Administration Block. The appointment of the first medical doctor in 1971 marked a key professional milestone. In 1983, the Ursuline Sisters formally handed over the hospital to the Catholic Diocese of Kakamega.

Today, St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital operates as a faith-based organization (FBO) governed by a board appointed by the Local Ordinary of Kakamega Diocese. Before closure, the health facility had evolved into a 255-bed teaching and referral hospital, with its early nurse aide training programme maturing into a fully fledged Medical Training College.

Guided by Catholic social teaching, the hospital has the mission “to provide holistic, patient centered, quality and affordable healthcare services in fulfillment of the healing Ministry of Jesus Christ.”

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Its first strategic plan (2012–2017) and the subsequent one of 2022 – 2027 articulated a vision of regional leadership through strengthened governance, human capital, infrastructure, partnerships, service quality, and financial sustainability, according to a report ACI Africa obtained on January 22.