Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria has constructed a 35-bed Intensive Care Unit facility in a record 21 days. Wa Iria says the facility will be opened on Tuesday.

The 21 days lapsed on Saturday and true to his word, Wa Iria now says the facility is complete and ready to take in patients.

The 35-bed capacity unit becomes the biggest in the country surpassing the Kenyatta National Hospital which has a 21-bed capacity ICU.

Speaking when he inspected the installations of the machines in the facility, the governor said this is one of of the projects which he will be proud of even after exiting the office.

Wa Iria said the completion of the ICU in 21 days sets a good example that all projects are can be done in time.

He said he opted not to engage the contractors as this would take more time and consume huge amount of money.

“We used our county engineers, bought materials locally and engaged local youths for labor and we managed to save a lot of money” he said.

Wa Iria said the idea to have the ICU established was hatched years back but due to the bureaucracy procedures in the government, it took long for it to actualize.

However with the outbreak of the corona virus, he thought of using other means to have the facility in place being part of preparedness to handle the patients should the numbers continue increasing.

“The facility is not a preserve of the corona patients nor is it for the people of Murang’a only but it shall serve anybody from any corner of this country” he said.

The governor said they have already recruited ten nurses to work at the unit and they shall be working in collaboration with medics from Aga Khan hospital.

“We have a pact with the Aghakan hospital and they shall help us kick off the operations at the facility” he said.

“The unit has the best machines we could get and we intend to give quality services to the patients” ha added.

The governor also assured the public that the charges at the facility will not be exorbitant adding this is not a money minting unit.

“In some facilities, a patient is required to pay huge amounts of money to be get the services but we are going to do things different” he remarked.

He said part of the ICU has been set aside for pediatric cases saying this shall be used to attend to the children only.

“We also have a high dependency unit and this makes our facility complete” he said.

Wa Iria castigated those who ridiculed him that it was not going to be possible to have the ICU done in 21 days saying they should come and witness its doable.

“This goes in line with the national government’s universal health care which among the four key pillars laid out by the president” he added

He however said even if the facility shall start its operations, he expects President Uhuru Kenyatta to come and officially commission at a later date.

“We reserve that honor to the president because the resources used in constructing the facility were allocated by his government,” he said.