The Story Behind the Vision

Interestingly, medicine and hospitals have played a key part in my life. My father and mother met in a hospital. My father was a pharmacist at the New Nyanza General Hospital, then popularly known as Russia, while my mother had just commenced her nursing training at the same facility. She had to defer her studies to have me. When she did return to college years later, it was at Kisii Teachers Training College to train as a teacher.

When I was two years old, my brother Robert Mitema, whom everyone called JM, was born. JM and I started school in Kisii where my father was now working. Not too long afterwards we moved to Nyamira, where our father was part of the founding staff of Nyamira Hospital. My recurring memory of my late brother revolve around his frequent visits to hospital. He often experienced breathing difficulties. I remember accompanying my mother whenever she took him to hospital. And as you’d expect of little boys, we’d fight over medicine packaging.

One day he became gravely ill and had to be rushed to Kisii Hospital in an ambulance. I cannot remember much of the events of that day, but I do remember my mother receiving news that my brother had passed away. Though I never talk about it, the sadness and pain of losing my brother has never quite left me. When it happened I kept wondering why God had allowed him to die. Why did it have to be him? Many years later I would learn that my brother had died of pneumonia. And the primary reason for his death was lack of oxygen at the local hospital.

Oxygen, of all things. I have no doubt in my mind that my brother would have lived if a facility like the one we are gathered here to launch today, existed in the community. Sadly, many still continue to die today because they cannot receive the necessary critical intervention during the first 60 minutes of their medical emergency. My father was the second family member we lost. He began to ail in the early 90s. Even though he was clearly very ill, he did his best to hide the pain and discomfort he was experiencing whenever I was around.

My 19th birthday was the last I celebrated with him. He had a goat slaughtered for the occasion and asked me to invite my friends to come and celebrate with me. He was unusually strong on that day, considering that his health had not been good for a while.

The following day, we sat down for a heart-to-heart talk. He told me that his time had come; he did not have long to live. He however made it clear to me that he was not at all worried about the family as he was confident I would take care of my mother and my siblings. He also expressed his strong desire that I follow in his footsteps and study pharmacy. And if the opportunity came for me to pursue my studies in the USA, he let me know that I had his blessings. I would later learn that he had communicated all these things to his close friends. On October 29, 1993, barely two months after my birthday, my father took his last breath shortly before noon.

Years earlier when I was at St Mary’s Mosocho Primary School, he had expressed the same faith in me. On his way to pick me up for the midterm break, he was involved in a car accident which left him with injuries. When he was fully recovered, he told me that even if he had died in the accident, he knew I would have taken care of the family.

The story of my life is in many ways the story of my father. Without his influence, and the unshakable faith he had in me, I wouldn’t be here today, doing the things I’m doing. He took every opportunity to recognize and applaud every little accomplishment I attained in school. And because of this, I determined to always do my best so as not to disappoint him. Although he has been gone for 30 years, to this day I still seek to do everything well, as if he was around to appreciate it.

Not too long ago, my uncle Fred told me that while addressing mourners during my father’s funeral, I concluded my remarks with the words: “A prophet is without honour in his home.”

In many ways I felt that he had not received the due honor and respect for what he had done for his extended family and community. It’s with that in mind that I’m greatly privileged to name this great project after him. Although I started school in Kisii town together with my late brother, my first memories of school are at Nyamira primary school.

Throughout my stay there, I always topped my class. Wanting to give me the best chance for academic success, at class three my father enrolled me at St Peter’s Mumias Boarding Primary School. My brief stay at the school was marked by deep sadness and homesickness. When I returned home with a bad gum infection at the end of the second term, my mother persuaded my father not to take me back. I rejoined Nyamira Primary School for a couple of years before joining St Mary’s Mosocho Primary School in class five.

The competition at St Mary’s was greater and I had to learn to live without the first position I was accustomed to at Nyamira. That position was reserved for Gilbert Nyasoko, who would go on to be the best candidate nationally in the 1988 KCPE examination. My position would range between 2 and 5.

Apart from my father, another significant influence in my academic life at this time was my uncle Fred Geke. A younger brother to my mother, Uncle Fred remains a mentor and close friend to this day. When I was little, I recall uncle Fred visiting and bringing me a shiny toy car. In the rural town of Nyamira, I was the only one who had a “real” car to play with, something that really elevated my status. This was the beginning of our close bond.

When I was at St Mary’s, Uncle Fred would take time to write to me both to encourage and challenge me to do well. He promised to help me join Alliance High School - where he’d been appointed deputy headmaster - if I performed well. Selecting Alliance was a great risk to take because of the fierce competition for places. But with Uncle Fred’s assurance, I made it my first choice. As I would later learn from him, I was the fourth best candidate from my home district among those who had selected the school.

On the evening of the day that selection took place, he called my father to let him know that he had in his hand my admission letter to Alliance High School. That was a very proud moment for my father.

Four years later, Uncle Fred would make another call to my father, this time to read out my KCSE results. After reading the grade for each subject, my father would respond with “very good!”. Sadly, he did not live to see the next chapter of my life.

The arrangements for my father’s funeral were two-pronged. While the committee did their best to give my father an honorable send-off, they also used the occasion to communicate his desire for me to fly out for further studies. One of them, Ben Mesa, urged me to tell the crowd about my desire to continue my studies in the US.

Under the able leadership of Zedekiah Agata, an impromptu fundraiser at the funeral raised Ksh 100,000 shillings towards my dream of studying abroad. I recall the treasurer of the funeral committee, Victor Nyangaya, saying to me afterwards that he had never been responsible for such an amount of money raised at a fundraiser.

At Alliance, I made friends who would become instrumental in influencing my destiny. One of these was Stanley Waringo. When we were in Form Two, Stanley was one of the two students selected to participate in the annual exchange program with Brooks School in Massachusetts, USA. On his return, he brought with him a catalogue of American colleges. Using the information in the catalogue, I began to send applications to various American colleges using my pocket money. It’s this effort that 2 CHARLES ONYARI NYAKWEBA EMERGENCY HOSPITAL would eventually lead to my gaining admission to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

The admission letter came several months after my father’s death. But before I could take my place in class, I needed to pay $5000.

After sharing the news with my mother, the next person I spoke to was Victor Nyangaya. Besides the great work he’d done during my father’s funeral, he had remained deeply concerned about the well-being of our family.

Once he’d read the admission letter, he looked me in the eye and said that we had no other option but to make it happen. Next I visited Ben Mesa at his home one Saturday morning. He too was in agreement that everything needed to be done to help me pursue my academic dream.

The committee that had so ably overseen my father’s funeral reconvened to help me raise the required funds. It’s through their efforts and those of others that on August 30, 1994 I left for the USA. It’s with deep gratitude and honor that I recognize and appreciate the efforts of the following in helping me become what I am today. Sadly, like my father, two of them have since passed on: James Mokogi, Ocharo Rogena, Victor Nyang’aya, Alex Ntabo, Mirambo Ombuna, Zedekiah Agata, Charles Sagwe, Nehemiah Nyakwara, Stephen Nyakeriga, Samwel Nyanchama, Kennedy Nyakweba, Ben Mesa, John Bikundo, Suleiman Magare, John Atunga and Johnson Atoko. Along with these, I am deeply grateful to the late Hon Atebe Marita and Engineer Bikundo for organizing a second fundraiser on my behalf.

Allow me to make special mention of the following: my late maternal grandmother, Rachel Mandere, the late James Mokogi, Ocharo Rogena and Suleiman Magare.

My grandmother not only gave all she had towards the effort, but also went door to door in her village to solicit financial donations on my behalf.

Suleiman Magare did not know me very well. In spite of this he went ahead to loan me money and also take the risk of offering his name as the financial guarantor of my education in the US.

Mzee Ocharo was the best man during my parent’s wedding. On one occasion when I visited him, he reminded me that inasmuch as I was doing well in the US, my people back at home needed me more. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here today.

When my father passed on, one of the first people to hug and comfort me was Mzee Mokogi. As we hugged, I could feel the deep shock and sense of loss that he was going through. Even in his advanced age, he never failed to recognize me whenever I visited him. On seeing me he would say: “Omwana bw’Onyari ominto (The son of my brother Onyari).” He always expressed regret that my father did not live to become the leader he was going to be.

Life in the United States was not easy by any means. But after years of hard work, I eventually obtained my Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Midwestern University, Glendale Arizona, on June 4, 2004. I can only imagine how my father would have reacted if he had been alive to see his desire for my life fulfilled.

With my qualifications in hand, I began to think about the other things that were dear to my father. He not only encouraged me to do well academically, but he also exposed me to his commitment to social causes. As a boy I used to accompany him to fundraisers for community projects. One in particular has remained etched in my mind because of the kind of car the guest of honor drove.

At the time, my father was serving as the chairman of Nyamira Primary School. I remember him inviting one of his friends, John Atunga, to help raise funds for the school’s development. Mr Atunga, a publisher, drove a Citroen DS, a car that “sat down” when the ignition was turned off and “stood up” when it was turned on. I remember him donating books to the school and leading the fundraising.

My immediate desire was to return to Kenya and use my training and skills to help reform healthcare provision for the benefit of our people.

Back at home, I traveled around the country to meet various leaders and share my vision with them. It did not take long for me to realize that very few among those I met and talked to shared the burden I had for my country’s healthcare needs. When I wasn’t being taken round and round, I was being given false promises that in the end cost me time and money. Frustrated, I returned to the USA and opened my first business venture, a private pharmacy. This was in the year 2006.

Running a private pharmacy opened doors for me to get to know and network with many pharmaceutical providers representing different specialties. Down the road, a mutual patient introduced me to Dr. Vershalee Shukla, a radiation oncologist.

Apart from being an excellent physician, Dr Shukla was passionate about giving back to society through her profession. She introduced me to other doctors, including the late Dr. Marsh, who was very enthusiastic to bring his cancer treatment skills to Kenya. Dr. Marsh in turn introduced me to an architect by the name AJ Thomas, a man with a lot of positive energy. He heads the health department at Corgan Architects. Corgan Architects donated $1 million worth of design work to this cause.

Having failed in my efforts to try and collaborate with various governmental bodies in Kenya, in 2013, the Charles Onyari Nyakweba Foundation (CONF) was formed as a vehicle for my dreams. It’s a nonprofit organization registered in both Kenya and the United States.

CONF decided to seek donations from well-wishers and corporations to build an emergency hospital in Nyaramba, my father’s place of birth.The primary land upon which the hospital will be built belongs to my father – Charles Onyari. My father’s brothers, recognising the importance of the project, came on board and also donated their land to create sufficient space for the construction of the hospital.

The vision of Charles Onyari Nyakweba Emergency Hospital is to build partnerships with American Emergency Teaching Hospitals. These partnerships will create round the year residency programs that will see emergency providers giving their service at the Nyaramba hospital.

As the program grows, we will encourage young Kenyans who are studying medicine to do their residency programs in our facility on condition that they give the hospital three years of service after graduation.

Our expectation is that when these doctors eventually move on to set up their own practices, they will model them after the state-of-the-art facility at Nyaramba, where they will have trained.

This will hopefully have an effect in gradually revolutionizing healthcare provision in Kenya with quality facilities gradually sprouting all over the country. Why an Emergency Hospital and why at Nyaramba? I’m told that 50-60 percent of patients who are rushed to Kenyan hospitals with life-threatening conditions die. In some hospitals the mortality can be as high as 80 percent.

There are four basic reasons behind this sad loss of lives that could have been saved.

The first is lack of expertise. While Kenya has many skilled and highly trained doctors and surgeons, few have specialized training in emergency medicine. The country has only four doctors with specialized training in Emergency Medicine. Of these four, three are practicing abroad.

The second reason is lack of facilities and equipment to offer effective emergency interventions.

Third is the delayed arrival of patients to hospital facilities.

The final one is systematic failure within our health facilities. Many of our hospitals lack systems that ensure that patients facing life threatening conditions are attended to promptly, the right way and by the right medical personnel.

CONFEH will have all the equipment, facilities and personnel whose primary training and skills are to keep patients alive in that critical first hour when a patient is experiencing a life-threatening situation. In other words, the hospital will have staff that is well trained on how to respond to critical conditions immediately a patient is brought in. They will have at their disposal equipment and facilities to handle every kind of life-threatening condition quickly and effectively. Among these will be a multi-purpose operating room, a recovery room, a multifunctional pharmacy and ICU among other critical departments. This hospital will be strictly for stabilizing the patients and not for longterm stay. Stabilized patients will be transferred to other facilities or released to go home to recover.

Examples of critical situations that require urgent attention by a specialized emergency medicine provider include:

Motorcycle/vehicle accidents injuries
very high blood sugar in diabetes
very high blood pressure
heart attacks
asthma/ respiratory conditions\
complicated childbirth
serious burns
severe physical injury
anaphylactic shock and stroke
among other medical emergencies.

State-of-the-art facilities like the one I envision are usually located in large cities where they cater for the few who can afford their services. By locating this facility deep in the countryside - in a rural village - I’m echoing my deeply held conviction that every life that can be saved is worth saving.

From the day I conceived the dream to build this hospital, it was clear in my mind what it should be called. I would name it after my late father, Charles Onyari Nyakweba. My father not only gave me life but also planted in me the values that have over time crystallized into this great dream.

In that sense, I have no doubt in my mind that my father is essentially also the father of this project. It represents something he himself would have done, had he lived his full life.

I learnt many things from my father’s short life. Some he actually taught me but the others I observed in the way he lived his life. Out of the many lessons I learned from him, allow me to share ten that greatly impacted my life. In many ways, these lessons provided the foundations and pillars of this great project.

1. The village is family

One of the earliest lessons we had to learn as his immediate family was to share him with others. He was our father, but he was also the father of his many younger siblings and other relatives whom he had to educate and raise. His time and resources were as much theirs as they were ours. Some of my younger uncles are like brothers to me because we were raised together.

2. He knew how to build from scratch

Just as we lost him when we were young, my father also lost his father when he was young. But he did not have the support systems that were available to us. He literally built his life from scratch. Even later in life, I saw my father build success out of nothing. I watched him raise himself into a person of influence in the community. By the time his life was cut short, he was well on his way into becoming a notable leader in the community.

3. He was always creating and extending networks

My father had one of the widest networks I have ever seen in one person’s life. He networked with people his age as easily as he did with people who would have been the age of his father. He valued village networks as he did those of his educated colleagues. His networks pervaded many spheres. Some were professional but most were made up of his many friends. Some of his most effective networks were within the family. For example his close working relationship with his father and mother-inlaw proved to be of great value in his formative years.

4. He was business minded

As you will learn from my story, it’s my venture into the business world that opened the door to this dream. This I picked from my father. Although he was a civil servant, my father was always looking for wealth creating opportunities. Some were in the line of his profession while others were opportunitistic.

5. He never ran away from responsibilities

When he put upon his own shoulders the responsibility of raising his many younger siblings, he did everything that needed to be done to help them. Where he was unable to do something, he took advantage of his wide networks. For example, some of my uncles and an aunt were raised by my maternal grandmother. He never believed in just doing what was possible; he made sure that what needed to be done, was done one way or another.

6. He made the most of his time and opportunities

One of my father’s most used phrases was “Hurry up!” If you went anywhere with him, you’d hear it quite a bit. My father was always doing something or on his way somewhere to do something. He died young at only 44. Yet, in spite of his many responsibilities and having started from scratch and without advantage, he managed to do way more than people of his age manage to do.

7. He was a loyal friend and relative

My father took his relationships seriously and invested heavily in them. He found time to be part of his friends’ and relatives’ lives.

8. He accepted the burden of leadership

Although my father was gentle and soft-spoken, he was often called upon to offer leadership to social initiatives. Many of these put a strain on both his time and resources. But he always made himself available. He served the community in the following capacities: Chairman of the Nyamira Primary School Committee; founding Chairman of Nyamira Hospital Welfare Association; Chairman of Afya Sacco Ltd, Nyamira Branch; Board of Governors member, Nyangoge Secondary School; and member of the Sub-location Development Committee among other leadership roles.

9. He remained humble and approachable

Whatever my father became or attained, it never changed him. Throughout his life he maintained the humility of a village man. Our home constantly had a lot of traffic. People were always coming and going. That’s why in spite of my many years in the USA, I’m always drawn back to the village my father so loved.

10. At the end of the day he was a family man

In spite of the many responsibilities that demanded his time and resources, he found time to be a father to us. I can say without hesitation that my father was my best friend. He made time to be in touch with everything that was happening in my life. And not just that. Although I was a teenager, he discussed family and personal matters with me as if I was an adult. He was personally involved in the little details of our lives. It’s with all this in mind that I feel greatly privileged to n

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A TRIBUTE TO MY FATHER

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