The gift of a hospital

By JECKONIA OTIENO

UNSUNG HEROES; Anybody passing through Thogoto cannot fail to notice the new health centre by the roadside; this is Sir John and Mbatia Community Hospital, built by a British citizen of Kenyan descent.

The man who constructed the hospital says he always felt the need to do something for his childhood village; and what gift could be better than a health facility?

Mzee John Mbatia Kuria, 76, has a great emotional attachment to his village and country of birth. This love has seen him build the hospital to serve the residents of his ancestral home, whom he says had to travel as far as Karen or Kikuyu in search of health facilities.

Sir John Johnson, the man after whom the hospital is named, lives in the UK, and Mbatia, who has been a British citizen for more than a decade, says he is trying to trace him. Johnson was a district commissioner who gave Mbatia a job, and later rose to become the British High Commissioner to Kenya. He has since retired.

Sir John and Mbatia Community Hospital has outpatient facilities and five wards, including a labour ward. The theatre is expected to be operational soon.

Its founder insists the hospital is not for profit, but to help the community, so the charges are kept affordable. Just two months after it opened in April, the hospital had already recorded more than 20 deliveries, and was serving more than 20 patients a day. Being a community hospital, it is open to volunteers.

Mbatia’s daughter, Purity, who is the hospital administrator says, “We have received positive feedback from the community. They say this hospital is of great help to them, especially during emergencies such as accidents or sicknesses that strike at night.”

Some of the most commonly treated illnesses at the hospital are asthma, pneumonia and malaria. Purity says their vision is to start an HIV and Aids centre to bring anti-retroviral treatment closer to the community.

VOLUNTEERS

In the spirit of community service, Mbatia pays the hospital workers from his own pocket, using the money he saved during his working years, but he is hoping the facility will attract volunteers to help the hospital serve patients better.

The journey to building the hospital and achieving the dream of giving back to the community has not been a rosy one for the British citizen.

“I was born in Thogoto and attended PCEA Primary School Thogoto, but did not proceed to secondary school afterwards,” Mbatiah recalls of his childhood days.

He then went to Uganda in 1952 at the age of 16 to look for a job. On reaching Kampala, he met some boys who were speaking his native Kikuyu language and he bonded with them.

“The young men had no place to call home, but lived in the park during the day and slept in front of shops owned by Indians at night,” he recalls.

Some of his new friends also smoked bhang, which would lead to a turning point as Mbatia was arrested when the police found a stub of marijuana in the place where the group liked to relax. He was sentenced to six months in prison with three strokes of the cane.

But luck smiled his way and he was up for parole before long.

Says Mbatia: “I was called before a panel of government officials and asked why I had smoked bhang, but I denied the accusations again, arguing that I was just a victim of being in the wrong place. I think the panel realised I was truly innocent, and I was released the following day.”

The government chemist, who had been in the panel, gave Mbatia a job in his office. His job description was to receive and record all exhibits that were presented by the police.

He later learnt how to drive and got a job as a salesman cum driver at Lake Victoria Bottling Company.

Due to the difficult nature of the job, Mbatia left Uganda and returned to Kiambu, where he went to see the then district commissioner John Johnson. With Johnson’s help, he was employed as a record keeper in the Embu lands office.

Before long, Mbatiah was promoted to the rank of a district officer, but he had developed a drinking problem. Locals constantly bought him drinks after work, and he came to realise that these were not freebies, but bribes to make him favour them in land cases.

He says, “I left the job and moved to Muguga, where I worked as a court bailiff. While there, I underwent a major change. One day, I just felt that I had done many wrongs, and that I needed to repent. I had not been going to church, but I mustered courage and went one Sunday, and got born-again.”

Mbatia recalls that he took to reading the Bible and fasting so much that at one time, people thought he wanted to commit suicide.

HOMELESS

Rumours aside, his personal life hit a rocky patch shortly afterwards. His wife left him and relocated to Germany; he was jobless and homeless, so he and his three children would sleep in his car. A man called George Macharia urged him to go to Britain, and in 1993, paid the airfare for Mbatia’s family.

“I got menial jobs but had to be home early enough to prepare dinner for my children. First, I was a security guard but later on got a job at a home for the elderly.”

It was while working with the elderly that he met his British wife, who would visit the residents of the home. In 1995, the two married, and in 2001, Mbatia became a British citizen.