The construction of Nakuru’s Trauma Centre is finally nearing completion after stalling for 18-years

Nakuru County Executive Committee Member for Health Roselyn Mungai has revealed that the facility at Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital is now 96 per cent complete, with the contractor expected to leave the site within a month.

“That gives way for the conversation about operationalization and that is where the real work begins,” she says.

According to the county official the facility is expected to provide specialized emergency care for critically injured patients, adding about 20 ICU and HDU beds, theatres and close to 60 ward beds.

Dr Mungai says the hospital currently has six ICU beds and three HDU beds, a capacity she describes as “suboptimal”.

She says the additional capacity will strengthen the hospital’s ability to manage trauma patients, alongside an accident and emergency unit and operating theatres.

Redeveloped and almost complete **18-year-stalled Trauma Centre.**

Photo credit: LELETI JASSOR/MTAA WANGU

This comes as the county continues to grapple with road crashes, particularly along the busy Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret corridor.

National Transport and Safety Authority data for the year ended June 2023 shows the Eldoret-Nakuru Road recorded 38 passenger fatalities, the highest among roads listed in Nakuru County.

The Naivasha-Nakuru Highway recorded 19, while the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway recorded 12. The authority noted that the majority of crashes in the county occurred on the Eldoret-Nakuru highway.

Dr Mungai says the county plans to fully equip and staff the facility by the end of the year, subject to funding.

The Ministry of Defence said the completed center would strengthen emergency care along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway and serve Nakuru and surrounding areas.

Aerial view of the redeveloped and almost complete **18-year-stalled Trauma Centr**

Photo credit: LELETI JASSOR/MTAA WANGU

The center has been promised for more than a decade, while crash victims have continued arriving at the hospital needing urgent surgery, intensive care and other specialized treatment.

For years, the project remained caught between the national and county governments with former governors Kinuthia Mbugua and Lee Kinyanjui maintaining that the facility was a national government project and had not been formally handed over to the county following devolution, all while road crashes continued along the same corridor the center was intended to serve.

In 2023, NTSA identified the Eldoret-Nakuru highway as the leading road for passenger fatalities in the county.

At the same time, the stalled project received renewed attention in February when President William Ruto toured the hospital and pledged national government support to complete the facility.

The plaque for the launch of the Trauma center by former president Mwai Kibaki

It would take another two years before construction gained momentum.

In June 2025, Governor Susan Kihika led Nakuru leaders to State House, where President Ruto directed the Kenya Defence Forces to help revive the project.

KDF engineers, architects and quantity surveyors subsequently assessed the unfinished building, plans and bills of quantities.

In November 2025, there was a new groundbreaking ceremony, with KDF and the county government taking responsibility for overseeing implementation.

Mungai says about Sh. 89 million had been paid to the original contractor before the revival, while close to Sh. 250 million has since been invested through the Ministry of Defence and KDF

Mungai says the hospital receives close to 7,000 road traffic accident victims annually, including motorcycle crash victims, with many of those undergoing surgery in the post-surgical orthopedic ward being involved in motorcycle accidents.

Construction of Nakuru’s trauma center nears completion after 18 years delay

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Leleti Jassor