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.
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