Nairobi’s Mater Hospital celebrates 50 years

27 Sep, 2012

The Mater Hospital in Nairobi celebrated its 50th anniversary on 22 September with a celebration attended by Kenya's vice president Moody Awori, the Irish consul Joe O'Brien, Bishop Domic Kimengich from the local Catholic diocese, as well as two of the hospital’s founding Sisters of Mercy nuns.

Arriving in Nairobi in 1957, the Irish nuns set about establishing the Mater as a multi-racial hospital providing health care to all, including Africans who at the time were not accepted as patients in many of the city's bigger hospitals.

Located in the industrial area of the city, the Mater is the third largest hospital in Nairobi, and offers a wide range of specialist services such as paediatric heart surgery.

The hospital also provides medical services in Lodwar and Kitui in the poor and remote northwestern region of Kenya.