In the late 19th century, 1891 to be specific, missionaries from Scotland landed on the coast of Kenya with the goal of evangelising British East Africa. Their decades-long journey inland had several stops along the way in Mombasa, Kikuyu, and their final destination, Tumutumu (present-day Nyeri County), where they built a hospital.
The establishment of the Tumutumu Mission Centre
When they arrived in Tumutumu in 1908, the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) went about setting up a mission centre. The purpose of this mission centre was to evangelise the locals and propagate Western education. To do so, the Scottish missionaries employed African teachers and evangelists who had been trained at the other mission centres in Kikuyu and Mombasa. Their logic was that the message would be more appealing to the locals if it came from one of their own. One of the missionaries, Reverend Henry Scott, also set up a clinic in 1909 to convince the locals of the mission’s good intentions.
Like its sibling mission centres, Tumutumu also trained those within the community, not only in Christian theology, but also medicine. In October 1915, one of the trainees, Samsoni Maingi, a skilled medical dresser, was charged with establishing a hospital in Cuka-Mwimbi. So, the brave sixteen-year-old left his home and joined a CSM expedition heading Northwest to the area. Upon arrival, Samsoni’s approach was to leave the evangelising to his travel companions and serve the community through his work. He acquired a reputation as a quiet but diligent man and was known as a wonder worker and quick healer for his prowess in minor surgery.
Back in Tumutumu, the temporary clinic structure had been renovated and expanded over the years. Five years after its establishment, a permanent hospital building was erected, followed by another one over a decade later in 1925. In 1929, a maternity block was built and in the same year, a training college was established to train nurses in the region.
In 1930, another block was added to the hospital. However, it would be another 63 years before the hospital would be expanded again, to include an outpatient centre. The most recent additions were the Mount Kenya Ward, the Maria Zack Ward and the Guest House and Comprehensive Care Centre, in 1998, 2003 and 2004 respectively. Almost a century later, Scotland, along with North America and Kenya, still donates and contributes to the expansion of the pre-independence hospital.
Tumutumu Hospital in the 21st Century
In the 1940s, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (P.C.E.A) was formed. It was an amalgamation of the Church of Scotland’s Presbytery of Kenya and the American Gospel Missionary Society. This Christian denomination currently owns and governs the Tumutumu Hospital, and their guiding vision and mission for the hospital is to holistic, affordable and quality healthcare to Kenyan individuals and communities.
Once a small temporary clinic, the P.C.E.A Tumutumu Hospital now has a 203-bed capacity and provides various medical services including surgery, paediatrics and gynaecology.