09/07/2025
The tragic death of Joseph Lotuwon Lotuk, a Form Four student at Tiaty High School in Tirioko, has once again exposed the deep cracks in our county's healthcare system. Joseph died on Wednesday, 2nd July 2025, at Baringo County Referral Hospital in Kabarnet a place that, sadly, many in the Pokot community now associate with fear, pain, and neglect rather than healing.
Today, as Joseph is laid to rest in Meuto Village, Kolowa Ward in Tiaty Constituency, we must confront a harsh truth: Kabarnet Referral Hospital has become a silent death trap for patients from Pokot. Time and again, cases have been reported of Pokot men, women, and children being handled with negligence delayed attention, slow emergency response, and casual treatment even in life-threatening situations. This treatment suggests a dangerous underlying issue that perhaps the hospital staff and management view Pokot patients through a lens of tribal profiling, often associating the entire community with banditry.
This kind of thinking is not only unfair but deadly. And it has no place in a public institution funded by taxpayers. Let the hospital management be reminded that Tiaty residents also contribute taxes to Baringo County. The facilities at Kabarnet exist because all residents, including those from Tiaty, fund them. Every patient, regardless of where they come from, deserves equal and dignified treatment.
Let it be known: we are not enemies. We are fellow citizens. Our people go to Kabarnet hospital because they believe in the promise of county services. We trust that in times of emergency, we will be treated with urgency, care, and professionalism. What we receive instead is silence, cold stares, and preventable deaths.
The death of Joseph Lotuwon Lotuk is not just a family tragedy it is a community wound. One that will not heal until justice, equality, and respect are restored in our health systems. We call on the Baringo County Government and all relevant health authorities to investigate this growing trend of medical neglect towards Pokot patients at Kabarnet Referral Hospital.
Joseph deserved better. The people of Tiaty deserve better. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege based on tribe. Let this not happen again.