Kenyan MPs want a helicopter on standby to evacuate them to well-equipped hospitals in case of an emergency, the Daily Nation newspaper reports.

The demand follows the death of their colleague, Justus Murunga, last weekend at a hospital in his Matungu constituency in western Kenya.

The MPs on Tuesday eulogised their deceased colleague and decried their lack of access to emergency services.

"We were requesting — and I have managed to talk to the clerk of the National Assembly about this — that we be given a hotline number to helicopter services just in case,” Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi is quoted as saying.

The call has been criticised by Kenyans online, some of whom say the focus should be to improve the hospitals in the rural centres to take care of all Kenyans.