Detective Jane Mugo has raised concerns over the treatment of patients and families seeking medical services at Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital at night, after she said she witnessed a disturbing incident involving one of her clients.
Mugo said she was accompanying a family whose son had previously been admitted to the facility and had later returned to substance abuse, alcohol use and allegedly threatening behaviour.
According to Jane Mugo, the family contacted her security team to escort the patient to the hospital after being advised by a nurse to bring him physically for assessment and admission.
She said the family complied with the instructions, including presenting the patient’s green card, and arrived at the hospital at about 9pm.
However, Jane Mugo claimed that the patient had still not been admitted several hours later despite having undergone the required registration and laboratory process.
Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital (MNTRH) is Kenya’s leading specialised mental health facility and a Level 6 national referral institution.
Its mandate includes psychiatric care, substance-abuse and addiction treatment, rehabilitation, laboratory services and other specialised medical services.
Mugo raises questions over what happened at night
In a lengthy Facebook post, Mugo questioned who is responsible for overseeing operations at the hospital during the night, particularly when patients require urgent attention.
She alleged that after the family was directed to the laboratory at around 9pm, the patient remained without admission by 11pm.
Mugo said members of her security team attempted to establish what was causing the delay.
She further claimed that they witnessed other clients being admitted while laboratory results were allegedly already available in a doctor’s room.
According to her account, a private security guard allegedly told them to cooperate and give something so that they could see the doctor like other people.
Mugo said that when her team sought assistance from a nurse on duty, they were advised to first resolve the matter with security and that they would subsequently be attended to within 10 minutes.
However, she claimed the situation continued for several hours.
“By 2am the patient was not admitted simply because the family had not tipped them,” Mugo alleged in her post.
These allegations have not been independently verified, and there was no immediate response from Mathari Hospital contained in Mugo’s account.
Security concerns
Mugo also questioned the conduct and presence of security personnel at the facility during the night.
She claimed that by around 2am, security guards had disappeared from the areas where they had earlier been stationed.
She further alleged that one nurse followed security personnel into a private room in the wards, leaving patients with another nurse who she said was struggling to manage the situation.
Mugo said her team eventually remained with the client until around 3am before leaving the facility.
She claimed that, at the time of departure, there was nobody at the gate to open it for them, forcing them to open it themselves.
She praised one security guard whom she said remained professional during the encounter but questioned the conduct of others whom she accused of shouting at and harassing families dealing with sick relatives.
Mugo asks Kenyans to share experiences
In her post, Mugo broadened the issue beyond her client’s experience, asking Kenyans whether they had encountered similar challenges while seeking services in public institutions.
“My question is what happened to the public when they go for check up at Mathare [and] other hospitals, government offices?” she asked.
She also questioned whether Kenya had become a country where people were expected to give small payments to receive services.
“Has Kenya become officially country of small thing (KK)?” Mugo wrote.
She called on social-media users to share their experiences with government agencies, particularly public hospitals.
Mathari’s longstanding challenges
Mugo’s allegations come against the backdrop of longstanding concerns about capacity, staffing and resources at Mathari.
A previous parliamentary assessment found significant staffing shortages at the hospital and noted that the facility was operating under pressure, including in its maximum-security unit.
A separate human-rights assessment also documented high occupancy levels and staffing constraints at the institution.
The assessment described Mathari as Kenya’s largest mental health facility, with both civil and maximum-security sections.
More recently, a June 2026 report by Business Daily said equipment problems had affected access to inpatient services at the hospital, with the publication reporting a significant shortfall between targeted and actual inpatient admissions during the 2024/25 financial year.
The hospital says it currently has 700 inpatient beds and provides comprehensive mental-health care, outpatient services and rehabilitation.
Its services include psychiatry, rehabilitation, clinical care, psychology, social work, laboratory services and treatment for substance-use disorders.
Client taken to another hospital
Mugo said the family eventually decided to abandon the attempt to have the patient admitted at Mathari and took him to another hospital.
She added that her client, together with her team, recorded what happened during the night.
The allegations made by Mugo, including claims of demands for tips, security misconduct and delays in admission, would require confirmation from the hospital management and the relevant authorities.
Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital lists customer-care contacts for complaints and enquiries, including its customer-care telephone numbers and email address.
Mugo concluded her post by asking Kenyans to share their own experiences in public hospitals and other government offices, turning the incident into a wider conversation about patient care, accountability and the treatment of members of the public seeking essential government services.
FOLLOW NAIROBI NEWS ON FACEBOOK
If you like our work, you can buy us a soda
Buy us a soda 🥤
