A state-of-the-art ultra sound machine donated by the Kenya Red Cross to support provision of maternal health care at the Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi has mysteriously gone missing.

The health officials say they have no idea where it could be even as questions emerge over the security of other expensive medical equipment in health facilities in the region.

The County Executive for Health Services Gifton Mkaya says he can neither identify the make nor the serial number of the expensive piece of medical equipment because it was not recorded in the hospital asset inventory.

“We don’t know where the ultrasound machine is. It was not amongst the items included in the handing over report,” he explained.

Mkaya made this shocking admission during a grilling by the County Assembly Committee on Health in a session that was called to urgently address thorny matters affecting the health sector.

The Wusi-Kishamba Ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) Mr. Duncan Wangama who is also the chair of the committee disclosed that they had received reliable information that the whereabouts of the ultra-sound machine remained unknown.

He stated that officials in the department of health needed to furnish the committee with specific details of the ultrasound.

“We need to know the cost, model and serial number of this machine so that we can speak from a point of knowledge,” said the chair.

However, the committee was shocked when the county executive admitted that he could not provide those details because he had no idea where the machine was. He however said that the matter had been reported to the police for proper investigations.

When pressed on the status of the investigations, Mkaya admitted that he has not followed up the matter, attracting chastisement from the committee members.

“You never bothered to follow up with the report. What you said is neither here nor there because it is vague. We need tangible reports and statements to work on,” said Mr. Lawrence Mzugha, Mbololo MCA and the Deputy Majority Leader.