Medicine not a cash cow as people imagine

Oncologist, Nicholas Otieno Abinya at Nairobi Hospital during an interview on cancer treatment and medication on 14th September 2021. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Kenya started training doctors in 1967 when it recalled Dr Joseph Maina Mungai from Uganda's Makerere, then the premier university in East Africa. Though Kenya needed him badly, Makerere refused to release him, forcing Kenya to pay off his contract.

When he finally started the University of Nairobi, School of Medicine, it not only had shortage of staff, but also equipment and teaching materials, including cadavers for practical lessons.