On Friday, March 4, the Primary Court of Kicukiro will commence the substantive trial of two doctors of Baho International Hospital (BIH) who are charged with involuntary manslaughter. The medics, Dr.Alfred Mugemanshuro, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Gaspard Ntahonkiriye, a gynecologist are being prosecuted in connection to the death of Chantal Ngwinondebe, a female patient who checked into the hospital mid-last year seeking the removal of an Intrauterine device from her body, but ended up losing her life during the operation. The hearing of the case was meant to start in December last year, but it was pushed to January this year after the defendants asked the court to allow them time to obtain the report that the Ministry of Health (MoH) compiled after carrying out a probe into the operations of BIH in the aftermath of the death of Ngwinondebe. It is this report that informed the total closure of the hospital. Last year on January 21, the date on which the trial had been rescheduled to take place, the lawyers representing Paul Jabo, Ngwinondebe’s widower, informed the presiding judge that they had not yet managed to obtain the report. Here, Jean-Damascene Kayitana, one of Jabo’s lawyers, told the court that the officials at the MoH declined to share the report, demanding a written request from the court requesting for it. On this basis, he asked the court to postpone the trial until they have laid hold on the report. The presiding judge resolved to adjourn the trial to March 4, so that the MoH’s report should be obtained.
