KNH Board Chair: Steering Right

By Dave Opiyo

Newsline’s Dave Opiyo sat down with KNH Board Chair Mr. George Ooko to discuss a wide range of issues including his vision for the hospital, his professional background among others. Here are excerpts of the interview.

Thank you for granting me this opportunity to talk to the KNH fraternity. I have met very many KNH staff. This is a big community and I’m sure many have not interacted with me. I’m glad to meet them through this forum.

I’ll summarize this into three areas. My background is in management. I studied management in college. Over the years, I have worked in a variety of businesses, industries, and sectors. In the past 15 years, I have worked in two State agencies as a CEO, both in Public Finance.

I’ve had a long experience in public finance. For instance, I took up the role of CEO in the Commission of Revenue Allocation. Here, I dealt mainly with the division of money between the National and County Governments.

Before that, I worked in the banking sector. To be precise, I worked in two banks; NCBA Bank which is the former NIC Bank, and Barclays now ABSA Bank.

Just to summarise, I’ve been working since the mid-’80s, mainly in Business Development and Marketing.

I pursued and got a Bachelors’ degree in Commerce at the University of Nairobi. I then undertook an MBA in the same institution. In the mid-’80s, I was a tutorial fellow at the same University.

As a result, I thought my future would be in the line of academics. I thought I’d end up being a lecturer after finishing my Masters degree but as fate would have it, I was fortunate to be offered a job in the USA for two years at Gillette Corporation, a company that deals with personal care products.

At the company’s headquarters, I was trained in business analysis and business development. This turned out to be an interesting adventure for me. After experiencing working with the top leadership as an assistant, I later came back to Gillette Kenya, where I worked for about three years.

I then left for Coca - Cola Company, a global beverage brand, and led the marketing services team within East and Central Africa. I am proud to mention that I was among the team that started CocaCola in Seychelles, competing with ‘Sey Cola’ at the time. This was a memorable and interesting experience in my career path. I also led the introduction of the ‘Stoney Tangawizi’ brand in Kenya.

I later joined Barclays Bank in early 1995 to head their marketing function in Business Development. This led me into the world of Finance and later, Public Finance, and Public Service. After a change of Government in 2002, I developed a passion for joining Public Service to use my skills and contribute since I was well trained and exposed. Fortunately, a chance opened up for me to be CEO of the Coffee Development Fund, which was later renamed the Commodities Fund. I set this up from scratch and worked at the institution for five years. This is an organization that funded various commodities in the country.

I later joined Commission on Revenue Allocation (Public Finance) which dealt with Devolution i.e. division of revenue, devolved services, health funding, and issues around supporting the introduction of devolution.

After finishing my second term at CRA, I joined KNH at a very challenging time as the Chairman of the Board just when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.

I’ve had several mentors in my life and professional journey as well. I must give credit to my parents especially my father who had a great influence on me. Not forgetting my late elder brother; Charles who had a great impact on my academic and career path as well.

I must also mention that I’ve had the luck of really working with great leaders in my career path right from Gillette to Barclays Bank. One of the things I learned all through is to observe and allow myself to be absorbed into the system and strive to improve the organization. It is usually important to understand an organization and a working system.

My current role as Chairman takes me back to one Mr. Samuel Ambundo a renowned Chairman of Barclays Bank in the 90’s -a great individual and professional who I consider my reference point as the chairman.

It is quite exciting to work at KNH. One of the things that I’ve tried to instill over the years is the elements of having an organization develop and keep on improving.

With a great Strategic Plan, we intend to advance KNH as a referral and specialization hospital and

invest in making sure that we are progressing.

The government has invested a lot in level three hospitals in Nairobi. The intention is to relieve KNH of pressure occasioned by the absence of these facilities. This will allow KNH to focus on its mandate as a referral hospital. It will then further develop our specialization and invest in making sure we are progressing well in sub-specialties and new medical technology.

We also intend to focus on the implementation of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), which is a key component of the ICT. This will be deployed both on the administrative and clinical sides. Automation of our processes, for us, is key.

As a board, we are also very keen on continuous training and development of KNH staff in all fields and departments to enable staff to develop themselves personally and professionally. We also intend to keep on improving our patient experience whenever they come to the hospital for our services. We want to be effective and efficient. The board will equally ensure that we make the hospital a conducive place to work. This entails offering support to the organization to enable it to grow. This also involves ensuring that the environment, the culture allow growth, development which will foster great results. The board, in any organization, is not an adversary to staff. It is there to ensure the right things are done.

I cannot forget to appreciate colleagues I serve in the board with. We, indeed, have a cohesive and well functioning board.

The COVID-19 experience says it all. We were, for instance, in a situation where at one point there were no flights out of the country. This country should therefore trust us in dealing with all medical situations as we have the potential to provide world-class patientcentered specialized care services. Any cutting-edge technology in medicine should be available in KNH both for referral and training medical students.

On behalf of the board, we truly appreciate what you do in the hospital and every input is highly valued. We do not take our staff for granted. Therefore “Hongera” to all KNH staff. Be sure to count on us in supporting the accomplishments and development of the hospital in all that you do.

As a Board, we promise to address issues affecting staff and ensure continuous improvement.

I’m equally proud of what the management – led by Chief Executive Dr. Evanson Kamuri has achieved over the years. I also wish to commend them for their hard work, dedication and commitment exhibited in moving the hospital forward.

I also wish to add that I’m particularly pleased and proud of the transformation effected at the KNH Othaya hospital in the last year. The facility is now ready and is set to be launched – by President Uhuru Kenyatta – anytime soon. This is a model, I must say, that should be replicated countrywide – i.e taking referral services to more regions in the country. KNH Othaya now serves several surrounding counties including Nyeri, where it is situated, Murangá, Isiolo, Marsabit, Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi, just to mention a few. This is a significant milestone.

Enjoy your work experience and make it a priority to enjoy what you do at your place of work. This has taken me a long way in building team spirit.

Invest in people and systems to better the institution or an individual. This applies, especially in KNH. For the hospital to run, we need personnel and systems both on the Administration and Medical sides. One of the things that fascinate me in organizations and institutions is the development growth and advancement over a period of time.

We are striving to make KNH one of Kenya’s most respected public institutions.

One of my favorite sayings is that: “A chain breaks at its weakest link”. For a chain to be stronger, you weld at its weakest point to make the chain stronger. In the same spirit, the Board’s agenda is to make KNH, which is 120 years this year, a better and stronger place.