President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointed Olive Mugenda as the non-executive chairperson of the Sh8 billion Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and Research Hospital board.
In a gazette notice dated April 1, President Kenyatta appointed the former Kenyatta University vice chancellor to chair the board for three years.
Mugenda, who also sits in the Judicial Service Commission, will now oversee the project she initiated while at the helm of the university.
She retired as VC on March 18, 2016, after serving for 10 years and turned down a Sh100 million send-off package awarded to her as appreciation for her exemplary performance.
Health CS Sicily Kariuki appointed Kithinji Kiragu and Gladys Ogallo as members of the hospital board for the next three years.
The government in February gazetted the university hospital officially making it a parastatal under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.
The hospital will, however, continue to provide specialised treatment alongside training and research roles.
In the notice dated January 22, the hospital will have a chief executive officer as well as a board of management.
The board of management will consist of a non-executive chairperson appointed by the President, a few principal secretaries, top university managers, and other state officials.
The hospital will join Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching Referral Hospital in Eldoret which currently offer specialised treatment.
The Kenyatta University facility is expected to ease pressure on KNH and be used for training by other learning institutions.
The facility has been lying idle for two years after its completion due to a row on who should manage it. The university had insisted that it wanted to manage the facility.
Recently MPs asked the government to allocate Sh1.6 billion to Kenyatta University to start operations at the hospital.
The university’s College of Health Sciences, which was started in 2004, will be housed at the hospital.
