Dr. Okemwa

MD||| Realistic Optimist ||| Social Democrat |||🇰🇪 ||| GGMU

[Idris Idahosa 🇰🇪 & 🇲🇹 @ASuruni]

To every medical intern about to complete internship,
The white coat you wear today carries dreams, sacrifices, sleepless nights, and countless battles that only you truly understand. You have survived exhausting calls, difficult patients, heartbreaking losses, and moments when you doubted whether you could make it through another shift. Yet here you are standing at the finish line of one chapter and the beginning of another.
But as internship comes to an end, a difficult truth awaits. The world outside is not always kind. Jobs may not come as quickly as you hope. Doors may not open immediately. Some of your classmates may seem to move ahead faster than you. There will be days when frustration, uncertainty, and fear will test your spirit.
When those moments come, do not allow your title to become your prison. Put pride aside. Put ego aside. If an opportunity presents itself, take it and give it your best. Never believe that any honest work within healthcare is beneath you. The person who remains teachable will always go further than the person who believes they already know enough.
Treat everyone with respect. The nurse, the cleaner, the laboratory technician, the pharmacist, the clinical officer, the consultant, and the patient all have lessons that no textbook can teach. Your character will open more doors than your qualifications ever will.
Most importantly, do not measure your journey against someone else's timeline. Life is not a race. Some will find success early, while others will struggle before they rise. What matters is that you keep moving, keep learning, and keep showing up even when the future seems uncertain.
One day, the struggles you are facing now will become the story that inspires another young medic not to give up. So hold on. Stay humble. Stay hungry. Stay faithful to your purpose.
The world may not owe you anything, but your perseverance can earn you everything.
Your internship is ending, but your true test and your true greatness..

I wish you the very best and a fruitful future ahead✅️✅️🔥🙏🫂

[Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital @MTRHofficial]

MTRH Interventional Radiology Performs Kenya’s First TIPS Procedure

Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) has successfully performed Kenya’s first Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) procedure, marking a major milestone in the advancement of specialized (1)

[Nelson Mogaka @NelsonMogaka_]

Dentists really figured it out. Decent working hours, fewer night calls and still earning well. Meanwhile other doctors are rotating through wards like it’s a relay race with no finish line.

[Daktari ya Wanawake @MiskellahMD]

It's with a heavy heart that I come to say that the person who operated on that gentleman in Transnzoia is a medical doctor. I initially could not imagine that a trained medic could even do that,leave alone a medical doctor. After my investigations,I believe that either the gentleman is mentally sick or is just a cold blooded criminal. As such I demand that @KmpdcOfficial withdraws his license coz he is nolonger safe to practice medicine and @DCI_Kenya to take over the investigations and @ODPP_KE to prefer appropriate charges. As KMPDU we shall never defend our members when they endanger patient safety.
cc @HonAdenDuale @MOH_Kenya @NPSOfficial_KE @citizentvkenya

[Manchester United @ManUtd]

No-one does it like him.

Bruno Fernandes is the Premier League Player of the Year 🤩❤️

[Football Tweet ⚽ @Footballtweet]

💔 The Hearts players couldn't hide their emotions when they returned to Edinburgh yesterday.

They were also still wearing their kits after throwing away the Scottish title in the FINAL MINUTES of the season. 😔

They had led the league for 250 DAYS, only to lose top spot on the final day after Celtic scored a late winner.

It would’ve been Hearts’ first league title in over 60 years — and the first for any club outside Celtic or Rangers since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen in 1985.

Football can be beautiful… but sometimes it’s absolutely cruel. 💔

[⋆KMꜝ❤︎ @mskmalibu]

Btw in your 20’s and 30’s you’ll start rediscovering the niche interests and hobbies you had as a kid. It’s very important you revisit them. Your younger self was actually on to something

[Dr. Stan @stansyke]

From Dr. Gikonyo's cross examination, you could clearly tell that doctors are a tier above lawyers, intellectually, just like the old days in high school.

[Kitheka @invest_cashflow]

Two graduates.
Both earn KES 50,000.

10 years later:

• Friend A: Broke.
• Friend B: Millionaire.

The difference?

Friend A was signaling wealth.
Friend B was compounding it.

He chose to invest 25% of his earnings monthly.

In 6 months → 75,000

In 5 years → KES 1.2 Million

In 10 years → KES 3.5 Million.

In 20 years → KES 15 Million +

Lesson: Stop acting rich. Start being rich

[Dr Gacikira 🕹️ @gacikiraMD]

A message to patients:

Don’t go to a Teaching Hospital if you don’t want to interact with students, period!

[The Kenyan Gyne (#HealthServiceCommission) @simonkigondu]

Medical School Fees in Kenya: A Crisis We Must Confront Now

I recently met Olga, a 5th-year medical student at the University of Nairobi Medical School, at the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists' Council (@Kmpdc). She is self-sponsored and carries a fee balance of approximately KES 900,000, with additional annual fees of about KES 350,000–384,000 for the remaining years.

Despite working as a research assistant during her holiday, the burden remains overwhelming. Her story is not unique—it is the lived reality of many Kenyan medical students.

THE BROKEN ASSUMPTION
There exists a dangerous and outdated assumption in Kenya’s higher education financing model: that students admitted under parallel/self-sponsored programs have the financial capacity to sustain medical education. This assumption has collapsed.

Medical training now costs KES 2–3 million+ over six years. Economic conditions have worsened, family incomes are strained, and employment after graduation is no longer guaranteed. Universities have increasingly commercialized medical education, while the State has failed to match training output with employment absorption.

A STRUCTURAL MISMATCH
Kenya faces a paradox: overproduction of doctors, underemployment of doctors, and persistent healthcare workforce shortages. This is not a resource problem—it is a planning failure.

WHAT WORKED BEFORE
The HELB model once offered a lifeline: accessible loans, affordable interest (~4%), structured repayment, and a revolving fund. Without HELB, many would not have completed medical school. I survived on HELB, which apparently also went to boost finances back home. I paid back the loan in 7 years of working.

POLICY POSITION: WHAT MUST BE DONE

1. Universal Access to Medical Education Financing
Expand HELB or create a dedicated Medical Education Fund covering tuition and upkeep, with income-contingent repayment and low interest rates.

2. Link Training to Employment (Bonding Model)
Introduce structured internship-to-employment pipelines and service bonds in underserved areas.

3. Align Training Capacity with Workforce Needs
Regulate intake based on internship capacity and employment opportunities.

4. Operationalize the Kenya Healthcare Professional Trust Fund
Ensure transparent, well-funded support for needy students. The fund is being revitalised with Simon Kipchirchir Kibias appointed as chair and PS Mary Muthoni Muriuki alluding to it to help pay for fees of medics, speaking at the KMA Annual Gala Dinner.

5. Strengthen Public–Private and Philanthropic Partnerships
Encourage sponsorships, scholarships, and partnerships.

6. Support Grassroots Initiatives
Scale initiatives like Leave No Medic Behind (LNMB). LNMB participated is an initiative by thr late Prof Hassan Saidi, a gentle soul whose love for fellow humans was unmatched. LNMB participated in the #53KMAconf selling merchandise, and sensitising participants on how to help needy medics, and welcoming them to LNMB run later this year.

THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENT
Investing in medical education improves population health, productivity, and GDP growth. Failure leads to brain drain and system collapse.

A CALL TO ACTION
Olga’s words capture the moment: “I am fully confident that my dream of becoming a doctor will for sure come true despite these challenges.”

The question is: Will the system support her— or fail her?

CONCLUSION
Kenya must choose to treat medical education as a public good requiring structured investment. We cannot build a resilient health system while financially excluding future doctors.

IMMEDIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
- Emergency bursary support for students with fee arrears like Olga.
- Fast-track operationalization of the Trust Fund
- National appeal to philanthropists
- KMA-led coordination of support frameworks

Let us invest in our medical students. They are Kenya’s future health system.

Dr Simon Mucara Kigondu is a gynaecologist and the Immediate Past President of KMA

[Ing. Dr. Essilfie @nanafosua_]

Don’t become the medical elder you used to complain about.

[The Grace Of God🤭🕊️ @Kim_Leeeeyah]

The older you get, the more you realize luck is mostly exposure. If you sit in the same place, have the same routine, talking to the same people, nothing new really happens. You have to tackle the world to win. Travel more. Talk to people.

[Helicopter pylori, MD💜 @_Faridah___]

There’s an RDT kit for troponin?
God please take me out of this jungle

[Timbss @saidnothingyet]

I pray me and all my brothers find our Napoli.

[O.sama @OsamaMhawish_MD]

Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

[Ginger @Gboye_Rave]

Wherever I am in the next 2-5 years, I pray I'm genuinely happy, successful, and living a life that once felt impossible.

[Nonyé Billions @TheNonye]

I love when you can tell someone has made it to the other side of whatever their struggles were! The light that comes back in their eyes and voice is really heart warming ♥️

[Smurf 🧚🏻‍♀️ @Smurf_Nita]

Nakuanga delusional that things will work out for me. Sahio niko in the deepest of rock bottom, lakini utanipata nikisema mambo itakuwa poa.

[Dr. Christon A.K Rweshakyira @Dr_Chris_Twine]

Doctors memorize drug names, dosages, interactions.
But they forget to eat.
To sleep.
To call their families.
They save everyone except themselves.