History check: KNH's monument of Indian heritage

By Philip Etyang

The Ismail Rahimtulla Walji Trust building at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is evidence of the historical relations with India and the Asian community as a whole in East Africa.

Completed in 1953 by the Ismail Rahimtulla Walji Trust, the building was exclusively reserved as a medical ward for the growing Asian community in East Africa, that required quality and specialized healthcare.

According to M.G. Vassanji, the celebrated literary writer of Asian descent, who was born in Nairobi, raised on the streets of Dar es Salaam and currently residing in Ontario, Canada, the relationship between the Asian community, the white settlers, and the black natives was always a delicate one during colonial times.

Therefore, creating a wing, exclusively to serve the Asian community in Kenya and by extension, the larger East Africa, proved to be the talismanic stroke of genius that propelled the relationship between Kenya and its Asian compatriots, higher.

Already maritime neighbours by virtue of sharing the expansive coastline of the Indian Ocean, this relationship has increased greatly, with statistics indicating that the current trade volume between the two countries stands at $ 2.2158 billion (2019-2020).

History pages remind us that the labor force that built the British, Colonial railway system, was mainly comprised of workers drawn from the Indian diaspora in Kenya at the time. Their presence in the country can be traced back to the 17th century when British Colonial rule was established both in India and later in East Africa.

Having been established in 1901, the hospital was dedicated to serving native Kenyan citizens and was therefore named the Native Civil Hospital before changing to King George VI and currently KNH.

The 63-year-old building which is still in excellent condition, is, however, certainly not the oldest in the KNH family, as its immediate predecessor, the surgical wing was completed two years earlier in 1951.

KNH has a rich history of relations with India dating back to 1953 when the towering Ismail Rahimtulla Walje Trust building was constructed. Since then, the hospital found a valued friend and trusted partner of India testament to the fact that the Indian government, through Prime Minister Narendra in 2016, upon the invitation of the then Kenyan President His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, donated a state-of-the-art cancer therapy machine.

The Bhabhatron II machine and digital radiotherapy simulator, worth Ksh190 million were installed in the Cancer Treatment Center at KNH in 2016 and were later commissioned by President Kenyatta the following year, proved to be a game changer in terms of turn-around time for cancer patients requiring therapy.

The building’s name originates from Ismail Rahimtulla Walje, a prosperous Indian trader who come to Kenya at the onset of the 20th century and founded the Rahimtulla Charitable Trust in 1940.

Gregory Roberts in his groundbreaking book titled “The Rise and Fall of Philanthropy in East Africa” published in 1992, claims Rahimtulla Walje was an Ismaili who had inherited a great fortune, committed suicide, and left a will providing for the creation of two rest houses and a donation of £60,000 to a hospital charity.

“The Walji Hirji bequest subsequently went toward the addition of an Asian Wing for the Native City Hospital (later Kenyatta Hospital) in Nairobi,” Roberts says in the book.

The trust also constructed the Ismail Rahimtulla Walji Trust Library along Mfangano Street, Nairobi in 1953 and the Rahimtulla Towers in Upper hill, Nairobi.

The Ismail Rahimtulla Walji Trust building at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) built in 1953

PHOTO |STEVE ARWA

The Rahimtulla Towers building located along Upperhill Road in Upperhill Nairobi

PHOTO |THE STAR