Nairobi Hospital’s Laundry ‘Side-Hustle’ Gets Kenyans Talking

Nairobi Hospital saw its annual revenues dip by Ksh1.15 Billion following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya. [Photo/courtesy]
Nairobi Hospital saw its annual revenues dip by Ksh1.15 Billion following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya. [Photo/courtesy]

Nairobi Hospital, one of Kenya’s largest private hospitals, has diversified into the laundry business and captured Kenyans’ attention in the process.

The firm’s announcement promoting its ‘quick and professional’ laundry services was widely shared online on Monday, February 21. It attracted mixed reactions, many of them from curious Kenyans who wondered why the hospital was getting into dry-cleaning.

In reality, Nairobi Hospital counts among its assets industrial-grade laundry equipment used to clean hospital gowns, beddings and more.

The move by Nairobi Hospital will see it open up access to its laundry services to individual customers. It targets those with ‘enormous’ laundry needs.

It is presumably intended to open up a new revenue stream for the hospital. The firm saw its revenues decline due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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In its most recent full year results released in 2021, the hospital saw revenue dip by Ksh1.15 Billion from Ksh11.1 Billion in 2019 to Ksh9.95 Billion in the year to December 2020.

The decline was driven by lower hospital visits and reduced income from lab tests, theatre and cancer care.

“The hospital’s occupancy declined, as patients avoided the perceived Covid-19 prone zones,” noted James Nyamongo, the Nairobi hospital CEO.

Nyamongo who was confirmed as CEO in June 2021 is working to strengthen the hospital whose reputation has recently taken a hit over claims of mismanagement and graft.

The losses came against the backdrop of reported boardroom fights over lucrative tenders that saw the ouster of former chief executive officer Allan Pamba.

Dr Pamba was sent packing in October 2020, just six months after his appointment, on allegations that he had failed to provide a performance improvement plan for the hospital. Pamba, however, denied the allegations claiming the ouster was down to his refusal to prioritize the award of a Ksh118 million security system tender as the system in place was working just fine.

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MARTIN SIELE
Martin K.N Siele is the Content Lead at Business Today. He is also a Quartz contributor and a 2021 Baraza Media Lab-Fringe Graph Data Storytelling Fellow. Passionate about digital media, sports and entertainment, Siele also founded Loud.co.ke

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