This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
August 21, 2019, marked a fateful day for Lidya Achieng and her family. The Kenyan woman had taken her one-year-old son to the MIOT Centre for Children's Cardiac Care in Chennai City, India, for a life-saving operation to fill a hole in the toddler's heart.
According to Lidya's husband, Pacifica Onyango, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) called HAWI had promised to fully sponsor the operation. However, two days after the successful procedure, the NGO informed Mr. Onyango that it was unable to foot the medical bills as earlier promised.
As a result, Lidya and her son are still detained at the facility until the Ksh.1 million bill is cleared. Mr. Onyango, a social worker in Muhuru town, has been parting with Ksh.10,000 daily for their upkeep abroad, expressing frustration that the pending bill continues to grow by the day.
