A two-year-old Kenyan child who had a forked hoe lodged in his skull has died while undergoing surgery at the country's main hospital.

The boy's death comes amid accusations from his relatives and a public outcry that it had taken medics at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) more than 20 hours to admit the boy and give him emergency care.

But in a statement on Tuesday, the hospital explained the delay saying the patient had lost a lot of blood and therefore needed to be stabilised before being taken into surgery.

The child’s mother later told local media that the boy had died during the operation.

Uproar as two-year-old boy with a fork jembe lodged in his head dies at Kenyatta National Hospital pic.twitter.com/aGDV7F1jMB

— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) October 12, 2022

The boy was reportedly hit with the gardening tool while out playing with friends in Kilimambogo, some 63km (39 miles) from the capital Nairobi. He was taken to a nearby hospital but was referred to KNH.

The case has put KNH and other public health centres in the spotlight.

They are often accused of offering substandard services to Kenyans amid shortages of medicines and basic equipment for doctors due to insufficient funding from the government.