By Peter Muiruri
As the number of settlers in Kenya increased in the late 1940s and 1950s, King George VI Hospital, now Kenyatta National Hospital, was deemed inadequate to handle the growing number of white patients.
An idea was then mooted by the Kenya European Hospital Association to build a hospital that would exclusively handle the swelling clientele.
Before Nairobi Hospital — then known as European Hospital — was established, the association developed several other medical institutions near the site where the hospital currently stands. In 1952, the hospital association established the Princess Elizabeth Hospital exclusively dedicated to the treatment of women.
This development was timely considering that this was the same year a young English lady by the name Elizabeth Alexander Mary, visited the country while on her way to Australia and New Zealand on a mission to represent her ailing father, King George VI. While in Kenya, news reached her that her father had died and she was now the Queen of England. Interestingly, Kenyatta National Hospital, separated from Nairobi Hospital by Ngong’ Road, was previously named after her father.
Today, Princess Elizabeth Hospital is the University of Nairobi Dental School right across Nairobi Hospital.
On October 20, 1952, the country was at the height of the Mau Mau uprising. It is also the day that leading luminaries against white rule were rounded up and incarcerated in various parts of the country.
But while his troops were busy knocking doors to flush out suspected Mau Mau generals and their sympathisers, the then colonial Governor Sir Evelyn Baring was laying the foundation stone for what was to become one of the most iconic medical institutions in East and Central Africa.
Opening
Barely two years later, the hospital officially opened at the current site with four wards namely, the maternity ward, St David, St Andrew and St George. Contrary to expectations, the hospital faced financial challenges during its early days, and could not afford to stock drugs or employ specialists.
Early hospital records indicate that a few pioneering doctors including Henderson Begg, a pathologist, William Hopkirk, a radiologist, and George Mercer, a pharmacist, together with two physiotherapists, obtained some space at the hospital where they set up their own equipment and medical supplies that they offered to the patients at a fee.
Despite having no cash to run the new hospital, the Kenya European Hospital Association went on to develop the Cicely McDonnel School of Nursing right across the road, the first such facility in pre-independent Kenya. Like its other affiliates, the school catered for whites, admitting the first four students in 1956.
As the clamour for nationalism grew in the early 1960s, the hospital went along with the flow by admitting all races either as patients or medical personnel. The Kenya European Hospital Association has since changed its name to The Kenya Hospital Association, the outfit that still runs Nairobi Hospital and its affiliates.
Dr Cleopa Mailu, the first African chief executive of the hospital, has overseen its expansion, including the opening of branches in various parts of the country.
It is among the hospitals where the high and mighty in the country and beyond seek medical attention. Most notable was Kenya’s founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who made a ‘home’ at the hospital’s North Wing that was aptly referred to as the ‘Hilton on the Hill’ owing to its exclusiveness.
When immediate former President Kibaki was involved in a car accident in 2002, he too was treated at the hospital before proceeding to the United Kingdom for specialised treatment.
