From a hospital dream to a maize farm

As vandals continue to wreck the ruined relics of what could have been Gadaffi Hospital in Blantyre and also turning the site into a maize farmland, government, it appears, still does not have a plan of what it intends to do with the site. I went to find out:

There is a proximal advantage of having nursing colleges and hospitals built side by side: students should not walk long distances for practicals.

Unfortunately, nursing students soon to enrol at the new campus of Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) in Blantyre will not enjoy this advantage. They will have to travel distances for their practicals.

The campus, which is almost through, stands adjacent to what, by today, could have been a fully fledged 300-bed Blantyre District Hospital—popularly known as Gadaffi Hospital—expected to cover 8 800 square metres.

In fact, being a practical ground for nursing students is secondary to why the fallen Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi promised to fund the construction of the hospital.

While visiting Malawi in 2002, Gadaffi felt sorry after visiting ward 4A, a female surgical ward, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre.

On July 18 2002, The Nation captured better the dread of the ward:

“The ward, with 32 beds, had 68 patients, some of them sleeping on the floor. Only a few sleeping on mattresses. Others were using straw mats and bed covers.”

Touched with pity, the Libyan leader, in a quest to help the country healthcare, promised to build a district hospital in Blantyre. That promise gained weight two years when a foundation stone, a symbol for the project’s take-off, was laid at Kameza, the site chosen for construction, on April 14 2004.

However, nine years after laying the foundation stone, and eleven years after the promise, the sight at Kameza kills every reason to hope.

No hope

The brick wall fence erected years ago is not just darkened by marks of decay. The metal bars that were embedded in it have all been stolen; it stands bare. Not only that. Three years ago, the two structures inside—one for storing property and the other for the guards—had iron sheets. Only one has them today.

“Security of this place is quite a challenge,” says an elderly man who guards the premises.

Apart from security, untamed grass and shrubs continue to grow inside. Of course, with the rainy season, the site becomes a farmland.

“There are a lot of people who cultivates here. They love this place because its soil is fertile, and again, with the brick wall, they feel their garden is secured,” says the guard.

With the problem that moved Gadaffi to promise a hospital turning ugly at QECH, why, till date, is the hospital dream tuning into a maize farmland?

Troubled beginnings

The project was agreed during the Bakili Muluzi era. In fact, it began more as a personal arrangement between the two heads of State. And there is a reason.

Anyone wishing to construct a hospital, there are procedures well laid and they must be followed. The Gadaffi Hospital project, it appears, bypassed these procedures.

In 2008, after Muluzi had gone out of power, principal secretary in the Ministry of Health Chris Kango’mbe toldThe Nation that there was a lot of secrecy in the project which did not meet basic required standards for a hospital.

He added a “district hospital is required to cover a minimum of 30 hectares of land and despite availability of over 40 hectares, the Libyans had only fenced around 11 hectares”.

Not only that.

In 2003, disgraced Health minister Yusuf Mwawa told Parliament that Libyans “will do everything [on the hospital construction] on their own”.

But when Mutharika came to power, government set aside K115 million in the 2004/2005 budget as a contribution to the building of the hospital.

And then there was a question of design. The project resumed in May 2007. Barely five months later, in October, disagreements erupted between Libyans and government over the design of the hospital. This forced the project to stop. But how do contactors begin to work on a building project without an agreement by stakeholders on the design of the project?

Caught in the dungeons of ‘secrecy’ and the ‘design’ dilemma, the project was, again, complicated by internal political conflicts between Mutharika and Muluzi—who was a great friend of Gadaffi. The culmination of it came in 2007. Arguing “we have no business with them”, Mutharika’s government closed the Libyan Embassy in Malawi.

Stuck in history

Even today, as it was before, Malawi Government hardly appears to have a clue on the project’s next step.

Asked the way forward on the hospital amid continued inactivity and vandalism, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Henry Chimbali throws the ball to the Libyans.

“At the time when the relations between Malawi and Libya were fine and also before the unprecedented events that occurred in Libya, the arrangement was that the Libyan government takes charge of everything as regards the project until the hospital is handed over to the Malawi Government,” he says.

He adds that until the matter of the project is concluded with the Libyan government, Malawi Government cannot just get to the site and start construction.

“You need to be aware that a contract was signed between the Libyan government and City Building Contractors and we are not sure of what has transpired between the funding institution and the contractor. So we wait for official communication from Tripoli that will make us take any appropriate action,” he says.

That communication, unfortunately, is not coming.

“The issue of engaging the Libyan government is not the responsibility of our ministry. There are government departments and ministries to look into this. Due to the current situation, we referred the matter to Foreign Affairs Ministry to clear everything as regards the project so that as Health Ministry, we need to look at other alternatives towards the project,” adds Chimbali.

However, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Quent Kalichero says the issue of Gadaffi Hospital is being handled by the line ministry which is Ministry of Health.

“The challenge again is that since the closure of the embassy, there has been little talk between us and them. However, the Gadaffi Hospital is completely in the hands of Ministry of Health. They are the ones in the know,” she says.

Surprisingly, amid this, Chimbali says Blantyre District has no district hospital and government plans are to have a district hospital and most likely, it will be at the same site.

“Once we identify funds, and all matters resolved, we should be ready to commence the project,” he says.

But nobody knows when.