Betty Gikonyo

Last updated

Betty Muthoni Gikonyo
Born (1950-05-27) May 27, 1950 (age 73)
Kiamabara, Nyeri County, Kenya
NationalityKenyan
Education University of Nairobi
(Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery)
(Master of Medicine in Pediatrics)
University of Minnesota
(Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology
Daystar University
(Master of Business Administration
Occupations
Years active1981–present
Known forPediatric cardiology and Entrepreneurship
TitleCo-founder Karen Hospital. Chairperson of Karen Hospital Board of Directors and Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist.

Betty Muthoni Gikonyo (born 27 May 1950) is a Kenyan medical entrepreneur, pediatric cardiologist and one of the country's best known healthcare professionals. She has been featured on CNN's African Voices [1] [2]

Contents

Gikonyo is a co-founder and the chairperson of the Karen Hospital Board of Directors. From 2006 until 2020, she served as Chief Executive Officer at the Karen Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. [3] [4]

Early life and education

Gikonyo was born on 27 May 1950 in the village of Kiamabara near the town of Karatina, in Nyeri County. [5] [6] She came from a poor family and wore her first shoes at age 13. [7]

She attended the Alliance Girls High School. [8] Her first job was at the Kenya Railways and Harbours before she joined the university. She earned KSh.  700/= per month which was a sizable amount for her considering that her school pocket money was 20/=. [3]

Her first major medical encounter was when her mother was diagnosed with cancer when Gikonyo was 14 years old. [9] But her biggest inspiration to pursue a medical career came from her elder brother, Dr Wallace Kahugu, because her mother spoke highly of him. [7]

Gikonyo went on to attend the School of Medicine at the University of Nairobi, where she received a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), in 1975. She went on to obtain a Master of Medicine in Pediatrics, with a bias in pediatric cardiology from the same university. Later she completed a post doctoral fellowship in pediatric cardiology from the University of Minnesota in the United States. In the 2000s while she served as the CEO at Karen Hospital, she undertook a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Daystar University. [6]

Karen Hospital and the Heart Runs

Together with her husband, Betty Gikonyo raised US$14 million to build the Karen Hospital. [2] Of this, US$8 million came from Kenya Commercial Bank, a loan that the hospital has since repaid. The hospital was constructed between 2003 and March 2006. It had 450 employees as at 2015. The hospital also has satellite branches in Chester House (in Nairobi's city centre), Karatina, Meru, Nyeri, Nakuru, Kitengela and Mombasa. She plans to open a Betty Gikonyo School of Nursing in Ngong. [2] [3]

As part of her charity work, Gikonyo co-founded the Heart to Heart foundation, an organisation that raises funds for poor children suffering from heart ailments. [6] In 1993, she (together with her husband) pioneered the Heart Runs, annual charity events today known as the Karen Hospital Heart Run (or the Heart to Heart Foundation Run) and the Mater Heart Run. The Mater Heart Run attracted an estimated 60,000 participants in 2015. [10]

Personal life

She is married to Daniel Gikonyo, a cardiologist, Karen Hospital co-founder [2] and the long-standing personal doctor of Kenya's third president Mwai Kibaki. [11]

They met at the University of Nairobi during her second year and were married in June 1974. She is a mother of 3 grownup children (a cardiologist, an epidemiologist and a poet). [5] Her third child, a son, was born with a speech and hearing impediment that required multiple surgeries to correct. The surgeries proved successful and he now leads a normal life. [4]

See also

Awards

Membership

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mwai Kibaki</span> President of Kenya from 2002 to 2013

Emilio Mwai Kibaki was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dedan Kimathi</span> Kenyan leader during the Mau Mau Uprising (1920–1957)

Dedan Kimathi Waciuri in what was then British Kenya, was the senior military and spiritual leader of the Kikuyu rebels involved in the Mau Mau Uprising. Widely regarded as a revolutionary leader, he led the armed military struggle against the British colonial regime in Kenya in the 1950s until his capture in 1956 and execution in 1957. Kimathi is credited with leading efforts to create formal military structures within the Mau Mau, and convening a war council in 1953. He, along with Baimungi M'marete, Musa Mwariama, General China and Muthoni Kirima, was one of the Field Marshals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyeri</span> City in Nyeri County, Kenya

Nyeri is a town situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya. It is the county headquarters of Nyeri County. The town was the central administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province. Following the dissolution of the former provinces by Kenya's new constitution on 26 August 2010, the city is situated about 150 km north of Kenya's capital Nairobi, in the country's densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murang'a County</span> County in Kenya

Murang'a County is one of the counties of Kenya's former Central Province. Its largest town and capital is Murang'a, which was referred to as Fort Hall during the colonial era. The county is inhabited mainly by and is considered the birthplace of the Gikuyu, the largest ethnic group in Kenya. The county has a population of 1,056,640 based on the 2019 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Kibaki</span> First Lady of Kenya (2002–2013)

Lucy Muthoni Kibaki was the wife of former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and was First Lady of Kenya from 2002 to 2013.

Christopher Ndarathi Murungaru is a former Kenyan politician, a former Member of Parliament for Kieni Constituency in Nyeri District and a former Minister of Transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenyatta University</span> University in Nairobi, Kenya

Kenyatta University (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Nairobi. It acquired the status of university in 1985, being the third university after University of Nairobi (1970) and Moi University (1984). As of October 2014, it was one of 23 public universities in the country.

Geoffrey William Griffin OBE was the founding director of Starehe Boys' Centre and School in Kenya. He founded the centre in November, 1959 with the help of Geoffrey Gatama Geturo and Joseph Kamiru Gikubu. He was director of the centre from its founding to his death in 2005. He was also the founding director of the National Youth Service between 1964 and 1988.

Raphael Tuju, EGH is a Kenyan politician. In 2002—after a career as a journalist, TV producer, and real estate investor—Tuju was elected to the parliament from where he continued to mould his political career to date.

Mûkûrwe'inî was a former district in Nyeri County, Kenya.

Karatina is a town in Nyeri County, Kenya which hosts a municipal council and serves as the headquarters of Mathira East district. Karatina municipality has a total population of 6,852, all classified as urban. It has six electoral wards, all in the Mathira Constituency; the remaining five wards of Mathira constituency represent Nyeri County Council.

The Karen Hospital is a private, multi-specialty hospital located in the Karen suburb of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. The hospital has an in-patient bed capacity of 102.

Kabando wa Kabando is a Kenyan politician and activist. He represented the Mukurweini Constituency in the National Assembly of Kenya for two terms having been elected for the first time in the 2007 Kenyan general election under the Safina Party which he was a member until 2022. He is founder Chairman of Nairobi Water Company, a founder of Students' Opinion (STOP) lobby which caused the revival of Students' Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU), of which be was elected President (1992). He is a regular author and media commentator on public affairs, locally and globally. In 2014, he was voted the most progressive public interest legislator in Kenyan Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliance Girls High School</span> Public national boarding school in Kenya

Alliance Girls' High School (AGHS) is a public national boarding school for girls located near the small town of Kikuyu in Kiambu County, 20 km from Nairobi. Founded in 1948 as the African Girls' High School, it is within walking distance from its brother school Alliance High School.

Yvonne Khamati, is a Kenyan politician that was nominated to the East African Legislative Assembly as Member of Parliament by Ford Kenya Party aged 21 and a diplomat who was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki to serve as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to Ethiopia and African Union at 24. She has served in the past, as the Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives and Rapporteur of the African Diplomatic Corp, in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has worked in various missions. As of November 2018, she served as the deputy ambassador of Kenya at the Kenyan Embassy in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. She is currently the C.E.O of the Kenya National Heroes Council, a parastatal under the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage

Susane Nabulindo Masakhwe is a Kenyan consultant anesthesiologist at the Kenyatta National Referral Hospital. Her specialty is pediatric anesthesiology, a specialty where, in 2014, there were only five qualified Kenyans in the field. She is one of a very small number of female pediatric anesthesiologists in the country. She also concurrently serves as a lecturer in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Nairobi, Kenya's largest public university.

Zipporah Gathuya, is a Kenyan consultant anesthesiologist, whose sub-specialty is pediatric anesthesia. She served as the Principal Surgeon at St. John Ambulance Kenya, for the 21 years between 1996 and 2017.

Juliet Gikonyo Nyaga, is an epidemiologist, hospital administrator, businesswoman and corporate executive in Kenya. Since 20 August 2020, she serves as the managing director and chief executive officer of The Karen Hospital in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. For one year before that she was the MD/CEO designate. And before that she was the hospital's chief operations officer.

References

  1. ↑ Lilian Leposo, Janet Mbugua and Lauren Said-Moorhouse (19 March 2014). "How do you mend a child's broken heart? Tales of triumph from a top surgeon". Cable News Network (CNN). Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 BBC (4 September 2015). "The husband and wife cardiologists who built a hospital". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). London, United Kingdom. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Dinfin Mulupi (25 March 2014). "Meet the Boss: Dr Betty Gikonyo, co-founder and CEO, Karen Hospital". How We Made It In Africa. Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  4. 1 2 Moraa Obiria (18 June 2023). "A life of service: Dr Betty Gikonyo's 47-year impact on Kenya's health sector". Daily Nation . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  5. 1 2 Samwel Born Maina (13 August 2023). "From digging out jiggers to treating children's hearts". Daily Nation . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Barrack Muluka (2015). "No, you don't have to be a thief, nor be politically connected to do great things". The Standard (Kenya) . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  7. 1 2 The EastAfrican (1 November 2013). "The tale of a daring doctor". The EastAfrican . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  8. ↑ Dorothy Kweyu (15 September 2023). "Gifted to lead: The 'girls' who went to Alliance in 1960s". Daily Nation . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  9. ↑ The Star Kenya (6 August 2013). "Kenya: Dr Betty Gikonyo Launches Her Autobiography" (via AllAfrica.com). The Star (Kenya) . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  10. ↑ Laban Wanambisi (23 May 2015). "Thousands Turn Up For Mater Heart Run". 98.4 Capital FM . Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  11. ↑ Bashir Mbuthia (23 April 2022). "Mwai Kibaki: Through The Eyes Of His Personal Doctor, Dr. Dan Gikonyo". Citizen Digital Media. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  12. 1 2 K40R (27 August 2016). "Betty Gikonyo Biography, Awards, Family, Husband and Children". Kenyan40 Rising (K40R). Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ DIM (6 August 2021). "GameChangers Saluting Dr. Betty Gikonyo: Kenya's First Female Cardiologist". Duchess International Magazine (DIM). Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  14. ↑ BDA (16 August 2016). "Punitive import and registration rules hurt firms expansion plans". Business Daily Africa (BDA). Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  15. ↑ UON. "Dr. Betty Gikonyo - University of Nairobi". University of Nairobi (UON). Retrieved 4 September 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.