(Kennedy Mong'are Okong'o was the first Nyamira Senator. He is also the National Liberal Party leader)
President Uhuru Kenyatta is scheduled to visit Kisii and Nyamira counties in a while where he is expected to commission various development projects.
Among the projects completed by the county government of Kisii in partnership with the World Bank and other development partners is the Oncology facility, medical students’ hostel and doctors quarters in Kisii County.
Reliable sources have it that with the development in the medical scene of the county, some leaders like Kisii University Vice-Chancellor Prof John S Akama and political leaders have been agitating for a fully-fledged medical school at the university.
On this one, I hold it that Kisii University is not yet ripe for such an undertaking, a position I first talked of two years ago while addressing a forum of medical doctors from Gusiiland who had gathered in Kisii town.
I raised several mundane and poignant issues to be addressed before having a medical college in the region.
Where will the medical college have its manpower from? Does the institution have the proper and recommended infrastructure for this?
Who will afford the services of in-house doctors considering the distance from Nairobi where a few reputable medical professors reside?
A point worth to note is that infrastructure for a medical college is not buildings, a mortuary and maternity wards; it requires state-of-the-art facilities.
Basic infrastructure like the Suneka airstrip has taken a century to be upgraded to a functional airport.
Prof Akama, on the other hand, runs the university like a village polytechnic. Political leaders have assisted this by virtue of receipt of loyalties and tokens.
As a member of Senate’s Committee on Education (2013-2017), we were astonished by the mushrooming of ill-equipped Kisii University satellite campuses via report tabled by the Commission for University Education.
Prof. Ambassador Sam Ongeri a veteran medical doctor of repute and the current Kisii Senator should not dilute his medical creditability by falling in the trap of political correctness.
The best we can have at the moment is a fully fledged nursing school. From there, we can build structures to upgrade to a medical school. Rome was not built in a day, so they say!
My plea to President Uhuru and his handlers is that he must not be duped to launch a white elephant project.
#hivisasaoriginal