The Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) is a Christian denomination whose presence in Kenya dates back to 1889 when Scottish missionaries arrived in East Africa. dSir William Mackinnon and Mr. Alexander Low Bruce originated the idea for this church with a plan for religious intervention in Kenya targeting Maasai, Kikuyu and Kamba communities. This came to be in the form of a mission in Kibwezi operating with the name East African Scottish Mission.
Due to a rampant bout of malaria, the Kibwezi mission was abandoned, and the missionaries sought higher ground in Thogoto. It was here that the mission established itself as the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM). The presence of these missionaries in Central Kenya led to the introduction of the Kikuyu Mission Hospital. Founded in 1908, it remains Kenya’s oldest mission hospital.
A New Hospital in Kikuyu
The founding of the hospital began with Dr. John W. Arthur who was a church priest that transitioned to Kikuyu after the failed stint in Kibwezi. He served as the specialist, surgeon, and general practitioner for the hospital.
In the 1920s, tides began to turn within the colonial government and medical services began to be offered to Africans albeit in racially segregated health institutions. Due to limited government funding, growth was slow for government-run facilities catering to Africans. For mission hospitals such as Kikuyu which were open to Africans, however, this was a non-issue. Whereas government institutions were concerned about funding for staff, Kikuyu Mission Hospital took on the medical training of Africans to create its own medical fraternity.
Though the colonial government felt that mission hospitals sometimes fell short of the standards set by the London College of Physicians and Surgeons due to this open recruitment, they allowed the medical centres to go on because government alternatives for Africans were scarce and underfunded. Soon enough, the colonial government began to provide grants for the training of African medical personnel.
A Medical Controversy
Despite providing funding to subsidise mission hospitals, the colonial government began to feel that these hospitals were overshadowing government efforts. In Kikuyu, there was yet another point of departure between the mission hospital and the government – the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM). As lines were drawn on this issue, Dr. Arthur was at the helm of determining the Kikuyu Mission Hospital’s stance.
FGM was brought to the hospital’s attention when four girls were brought to the Thogoto mission laying on stretchers with septic wounds from undergoing the procedure. Dr. Arthur began a furious campaign against the practice in Kikuyu and denied its relationship with childbirth. While the colonial government chose to lay low when it came to the practice and some missions turned a blind eye to avoid alienating converts, the Kikuyu Mission Hospital took an unshakeable stance against it. Dr. Arthur even travelled around Central Kenya in 1929 to garner support from church members for an agreement disavowing FGM. Those who did not sign it faced expulsion from the church, leading many to revoke their church membership – resenting the attack on Kikuyu culture. Eventually, the practice was not completely outlawed but regulated by being overseen by church officials in mission hospitals. The practice has long ceased to be overseen in any Kenyan hospitals, and it is also outlawed as per the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (2011).
An Expanding Hospital
Beyond being embroiled in controversy, the Kikuyu Mission Hospital growth was defined by developments of the Church of Scotland. In the 1930s, the branch of the church set up in East Africa began to have its own autonomy, and by 1956, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa had its own jurisdiction and became a part of the world council of churches – an inter-church organisation promoting church unity.
From being a tiny mission, the church received funding in 1975 from Kenya’s first presidential administration for medical staff. In the same year, a formidable eye unit came to be – one that has an impressive yearly patient roll of about 70-80,000 patients from all over Central and Eastern Africa. For its expert eye services, the hospital is most well-known as an eye hospital.
PCEA Kikuyu also adopted its first diabetes unit in 1993 to relieve the condition which had many patients seek eye care. An orthopaedic unit came shortly after which had expanded into a full-blown rehabilitation centre by 1998. By 2006, a dental unit came to be, crowning PCEA Kikuyu’s status as a reliable and well-equipped level 5 hospital.
PCEA Kikuyu Hospital remains a key to understanding the origin of mission hospitals and the early colonial landscape of Kenya. We celebrate its continued growth and longstanding repute as a specialist hospital.