By The Mountain Journal crew- Kiambu
The founder of Mount Kenya University
(MKU) will establish an ultra-modern teaching and referral hospital in an
ambitious program to boost its school of medical science.
The Varsity has released the first 24 doctors
since it was accredited to offer medical-related courses in 2014.
Varsity’s founder Prof. Simon Gicharu said the establishment of the hospital is part of the institution’s
plan to assemble one of the best medical training and research centers in the
region.
“We need to encourage the well-to-do people to
think about increasing the number of health facilities in this country and on
my behalf, I want to invest in a teaching and research hospital. We have done
so at Thika Level Five where we invested in an anatomy laboratory
that paved the way for enrollment of our first bunch of medical
students six years ago,” Gicharu said.
“Am having a cherished dream of supplementing Government
efforts of providing universal health care to all Kenyans. Am looking forward
to the actualization of this dream, sooner than later,” Prof. Gicharu
stated.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners and
Dentists Council in 2014 allowed the university to offer Bachelor of Medicine
and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB).
Gicharu said, to be allowed to start
the program, the university had to put up the over Sh300 million well-equipped
Anatomy laboratory at General Kago Funeral Home through a public-private
partnership with Thika Level Five Hospital practical training.
“We were the first University to roll out an accredited Bachelor
of Science, Clinical Medicine and Community Health and the first Private
University to offer a Pharmacy programme at a time when this seemed impossible,”
Gicharu said.
MKU was ranked the best in Kenya with a score of 82 percent in
an inspection conducted by a joint team of technical health experts from the
East African Community Partner States National Medical and Dental Practitioners
Regulatory Councils.
MKU Council Chairman, Prof David Serem said seven years back they
heavily invested in financial, physical, and human infrastructure capable of
producing medical doctors that our dear nation deserves at this point, this was
foresightedness and very visionary leadership whose fruition is what we are
witnessing today.”
The Vice-Chancellor Prof
Deogratius Jaganyi said they would use the medical faculty to support the
government in actualizing its “Kenya Health Policy 2014 – 2030” by the Ministry
of Health through the continued offering of quality training and research.
“As stipulated in the Social Pillar of Kenya Vision 2030
as well as under the SDGs 2030, the private sector’s role cannot be over-
Emphasized.
And this is where and how we come in as a university so that we
can supplement the Government’s support in health care and especially in
capacity development,” he said.
