This archive report was first published on 6 September 2019.
On August 25, 2019, Mercyline Ongachi, a 20-year-old first-time mother, was rushed to Mama Lucy Hospital in Kayole, Nairobi, after experiencing premature labour.
Accompanied by a nurse and her two sisters in an ambulance, Mercyline was admitted to the hospital and taken to a ward, but was left unattended, according to a human rights group pursuing her case.
"After minutes of screaming for help, a health worker walked in but attended to another patient, forcing her to deliver alone," said Sandra Mwarania, a health rights campaigner at Amnesty International.
Despite the health worker's intervention, the twins were born prematurely at six months and were placed in a carton box without any attempt to save their lives, allegedly due to the worker's assessment that they were too young to survive.
Amnesty International has written to the administration of Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and national and county governments to demand an investigation into the death of the twins.
