The concerns inside the Rehabilitation Department at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) have reached a point where the issue is no longer simply about workplace disagreements, but the toll that prolonged administrative pressure is taking on the mental wellbeing of healthcare workers.

According to a complaint submitted to the Commission on Administrative Justice, Office of the Ombudsman, several clinicians have experienced serious psychological distress, with some requiring medical and therapeutic intervention, because of the Head of Rehabilitation Dr Elizabeth Mwikali.

The complaint calls for an independent investigation into persistent administrative pressure, abuse of authority, retaliation and compromised internal grievance mechanisms. Some staff members are currently away from work on medically approved leave, while others are said to have sought medical attention after experiencing severe workplace-induced psychological distress from Dr Elizabeth Mwikali.

Nyakundi Report has confirmed that a very resourceful physiotherapist at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital resigned after she was subjected to persistent staff harassment by the Head of Rehabilitation Services.

The most inhumane part was that repeated attempts to have the matter addressed internally were made to fail. The awful experience had taken a serious toll on her wellbeing and ultimately forcing her to leave Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH), where she had worked as a healthcare professional.

In a resignation email in our possesion, she formally notified KUTRRH that she was leaving her position as a physiotherapist, saying she would use her 30 leave days as her notice period.

The email was addressed to Elizabeth Mwikali, Daniel Bundi and other senior officials, with the Head of Public Service copied, and it named Elizabeth Mwikali, then Head of Rehabilitation, as the person whose conduct she said had made her working environment unbearable.

She wrote that her reason for leaving was "the unbearable work environment" she had been subjected to, which she attributed to constant staff harassment by Mwikali. She further stated that she believed the treatment amounted to constructive dismissal and reserved the right to pursue further action if necessary.

The resignation letter is significant because it was not simply an informal complaint made verbally by a disgruntled employee. It was a formal communication sent to several senior officials after the employee says she had already tried to have the matter handled through internal channels.

The letter names the Head of Public Service, KUTRRH's CEO, Human Resources, Director of Clinical Services and Deputy Director of Clinical Services among the people who had been made aware of the complaint. Chelimo says she was disappointed that the matter was not thoroughly investigated and that her concerns were instead "de-escalated" without proper consideration of all the issues she had raised.

The complainant points to a Human Resources meeting held on September 25, last year, attended by the Chief Human Resources officer, Deputy Director of Clinical Services Dr Kerama Onyimbo and the person identified in the email as Incharge PT Daniel Bundi.

According to her account, the meeting was meant to address the harassment complaint but she felt the officials had already taken a position in defence of the rehabilitation manager. She says the language used during the meeting was about finishing and de-escalating the matter rather than examining the conduct she had complained about.

She further says that the meeting was conducted for less than an hour and was interrupted by phone calls and people moving in and out of the HR office, while Dr Kerama left before the meeting ended for another engagement with Public Service. She says he told her he would report to his superior, DCS Anthony Kamau.

HERE IS HER STORY

Hello Nyakundi, Keep me and my friends I will mention unonymous.

Dr Elizabeth Mwikali is the head of rehabilitation at KUTRRH and formerly a deputy in Physical Medicine (Physiotherapy) at Nairobi Hospital. She is a mother of a boy and a girl, and a wife.

Unhealed and broken as she is , Mwikali is an office bully and a toxic boss. This is known to all. She leads with divide-and-rule, fear, intimidation, and a lot of individualistic harassment.

She mostly targets bold, brave physiotherapist women whose audacity she dislikes in today’s world. Mwikali sabotages women leaders in welfare societies that support Rehabilitation in all ways possible.

She has spies at work, three or four men whom she closely associates with. Mwikali has her favorites; if you do not side with her, you face her wrath. She harasses you by calling you on your sick leave to confirm if you really are sick or downplay your condition. This is after you even sent a sick leave note or email. When you go on sick leave, she makes you pay for those days by working in the name of shortage.

She micromanages her staff to the point of demoralizing them as she has her bitches watching after other people. Mwikali has been overheard saying that the best tactic for getting rid of people is to constantly frustrate them until they leave.

One female colleague had to go into therapy and finally quit. Two others were admitted last week due to her toxic work culture. The HR is not confidential to the employees. When you lodge a complaint, they inform her of your presence at the HR offices, thus making the victims silent. The DCS is in on it. They easily tell you it's a personality conflict instead of checking the root issue Mwikali.

This lady is threatened by young, smart, and career-driven ambitious women. Mwikali will divert your hard-earned project so she can get the accolade or someone else, just not the individual she hates. She gatekeeps career opportunities by denying physiotherapists the opportunity to attend seminars and growth matters; only her favorites attend.

She will easily side with other faculties to make a Physiotherapist look incompetent instead of standing in and defending Physiotherapists when needed. Her favorite threat in 2023-2025 was, ‘YOU KNOW YOU HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN A LETTER OF CONFIRMATION ‘ as a threat to deny you opportunities or belittle us.

She is academically unsupportive, as the PTs who want to go through school to advance must go through her, even if they are attending online classes.

Unfortunately, Douglas Kotut, the CEO of the Physiotherapy Council of Kenya is aware of this kind of abuse of professionals, but they cannot do anything because they believe she is connected to influential government figures.

Fear and intimidation are so rampant in that department that individuals live by the survival of the fittest motto. They are so demoralized that they lack unity because with a boss like her, all you want is work and go home.

Trust Mwikali to find a fault where there is none. Only one man was her victim, but over the years,Mwikali targets women and sabotages them to the best of her ability. She has created a hostile environment that prevents career-driven individuals from thriving.

Public Service received a complaint, but she still sits there and harms other women,confirming what the late KCB Executive the late Rosemary Chemutai went through: a woman is another woman’s downfall. If such women are left to remain in these positions, they ruin careers and families. And in the case of Rosemary, lives will be lost.

Dr Mwikali has created an environment where employees feel they must choose between keeping quiet and protecting their careers.

This is serious in a healthcare environment because rehabilitation services are not an ordinary office function. KUTRRH itself describes its rehabilitation department as employing qualified and registered physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and orthopaedic specialists, with services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, orthotrauma and speech and language therapy. The hospital's official clinic schedule currently lists Elizabeth Mwikali as the clinician responsible for rehabilitative services.

The fact that Dr Mwikali has crippled the entire KUTRRH Human Resource shows your that she sits on very many people in and outside her department.

She has managed to discourage employees from reporting workplace problems, particularly where a person complains against is a senior manager with influence over their daily working environment, performance assessments or professional opportunities.

KUTRRH is not a private clinic where management can dismiss such complaints as an internal disagreement without wider public interest. The hospital is a State Corporation under the Ministry of Health and operates as a Level 6 public referral hospital. Its official documents state that the CEO is responsible for the hospital's day to day administration and for providing strategic leadership, while the Board of Directors provides oversight.

The hospital's current leadership structure lists Dr Zeinab Gura as CEO, Dr Anthony Kamau as Director of Clinical Services, Dr Kerama Onyimbo as Deputy Director of Clinical Services and Dr Tabby Mungai as Director of Human Resource Development. The Board is chaired by James Kibugu Wambu and includes, among others, an alternate Principal Secretary from the State Department for Medical Services.

That means there are several levels at which the complaint can be examined. Beyond KUTRRH, the Ministry of Health has a direct interest because the hospital operates under the ministry. The Ministry has itself said that KUTRRH is among the health agencies whose accountability and service delivery are matters requiring attention from senior health sector leadership.

Kenya's Public Service Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual states that a public officer should not bully another person and defines bullying to include repeated offensive behaviour that is vindictive, cruel, malicious or humiliating and intended to undermine another person.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act places a duty on an occupier to protect the safety, health and welfare of people working at a workplace and requires a working environment that is safe and without risks to health. The law further protects an employee from dismissal or disadvantage for raising certain workplace safety and health complaints.

The Employment Act protects employees from retaliation, making it clear that filing a genuine workplace complaint or legal action against an employer is not, by itself, a fair reason for dismissal.

What makes the case particularly concerning is that the employee who eventually resigned had already pursued the matter through KUTRRH’s internal channels, including reporting to senior officials and attending a formal HR meeting, suggesting the grievances were raised internally before she concluded that remaining at the hospital was no longer viable.