The hospital situated along Market Road served patients from as far away as Kericho, Elgeyo Marakwet, Uasin Gishu and East Pokot counties shortly after Kenya gained independence.

The hospital has soared above the storms of banditry, cattle rustling, diseases and hunger for more than half a century and has relieved patients’ pain by offering services in a county that has continued to suffer from a weak healthcare system.

Integrity
The hospital that was started in 1963 is celebrating 57 years of service to the community, which is guided and espoused by the mercy values of Jesus Christ:  compassion, integrity, respect and excellence.

But what many residents of Baringo don’t know is that the hospital is the brain child of the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic order of nuns from Ireland.

The Sisters of Mercy initially set up a convent, a nursing school and later a 30 bed general hospital to cater mainly for the poor.  Their primary mission was providing general healthcare.  The bed capacity is now 180.

In Summary

• Unknown to most of the over 666,000 residents, this was the first hospital in the region.
• It has a modern private wing, theatre, dental, orthopaedic, ear, nose and throat and gynaecology units as well as a mortuary.
• The hospital and school were handed over to the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru in 1993

This article was first published in the Daily Nation newspaper and was written by Francis Mureithi.