Gladys Kamande’s fundraiser hit by a major scandal

Kenyans managed to raise a whopping Ksh 8 million for Gladys Kamande. But now something has gone terribly wrong.

Gladys Kamande’s case received the much needed attention when a street boy in Thika wept for her after discovering that her life depended on a generator and oxygen tank.

Also read: Street boy who wept for sickly woman with oxygen tank has been adopted

Kenyans quickly responded and raised money for Ms Kamande who needed 7 million to travel to India for treatment; so far Ksh 8,049,572 has been raised through the M-Changa account.

But even before Gladys could travel across the ocean for treatment, her campaign drive manager, Ndugu Nyoro, has raised the red flag.

Nyoro exposed a quack who had been treating Gladys for the last 10 months and who insisted to be part and parcel of Gladys’ treatment in India.

“As it’s always the norm anytime we complete online fundraising for needy cases, I quickly organized for a meeting with Gladys and her family for a way foward. We had to deliberate on the treatment process which I considered most important,so more than the initial phase of funds appeal. I wanted a quorum to help us arrive at a solid conclusion. The meeting was to be attended by Gladys, her Mum, her Brother, her Sister, her Uncle, her Sister-in-law called Patricia, Cllr John Kibue Kibs, a friend of mine called Chebet Kertich and Myself. Samson Buluma whom they fondly referred to as daktari joined us much later. I needed his input as well.” Ndugu Nyoro wrote in part.

He explains that Samson Buluma had been masquerading as clinical officer from KNH yet he had no experience to handle a critical case like Gladys’.

Nyoro revealed he did a background check on Samson Buluma and he discovered that he had NEVER been an intern or an employee at KNH.

 “The first query I had was on the arrangement for travels. I was informed Gladys would be accompanied by her daughter Annita. I mentioned to them I would through my network of friends assist in getting passports for the two. But there was one more addition- ‘daktari’. I was told Buluma would be travelling with the two, to enable him follow up on the treatment for their duration of stay in India and know how to nanage his patient once they return to Kenya. I disagreed.

After the passionate appeal for funds, I didn’t see any need for additional party yet we were not sure how much would be required for entire treatment. Sometimes, un-budgeted surprises crop up. We had to save as much just in case.

I really could not understand why Buluma insisted on traveling. So I probed him. He told me he is a CLINICAL OFFICER at KNH and he has been treating Gladys for more than 10 months. A clinical officer handling such a critical patient? Why not a consultant? At that point I opted to query further on his role of managing Gladys and to what extent.

I realized my friend was not straight foward in his responses. I asked him how he arrived at his Indian hospital of choice and the treatment plan. He could not respond. I asked if he considered other super speciality hospitals that could offer better services. He didn’t have a convincing response. He could not table documents of his correspondence with the said Artemis Hospital. How did he, a CO, arrive at all these without the input of KNH consultants. He fumbled. At that point I felt there was a problem. The only response was that he had Gladys report in his head and would unleash it to the Indian doctors once he gets to India..

I left the meeting after some hours of intense discussion. I asked the family to allow me figure out the process.

In a bit to cover my investigations, I asked my friend Chebet to call KNH as we embarked on a mission to understand who Buluma was. The first call went to Dr. Wafula, head of Respiratory Unit. Ideally, this is the unit where Gladys matter would revolve around. Dr. Wafula said he has never heard of such a character. He told us the guy could either be a masquerader, a quack or an intern. But he expressed fears on the daily injections the patient was receiving at home. “I only hope he has been injecting water. Otherwise, her kidneys may suffer irreparable damage” he said.

I remembered Buluma had mentioned that he has worked at the Paediatric department. I therefore enquired at the place through the section head. The answer was negative.

Doctors could not believe the ‘doctor’ even was interviewed on a national television on this particular patient, how he was treating her and his plans for further treatment. He was a total stranger!”