Manyatta Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary

By Joshua Ondeng Owiyo

Joshua Ondeng Owiyo

First Published: March 31, 2021

The Manyatta Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary was founded in 1984 in Rangwe, a sub-county of Homabay County in South Nyanza in Kenya. It was established to bring health facilities closer to the people some 60 years after the first Adventist hospital in the area, the Kendu Mission Hospital, was founded.

Background

The members of the Manyatta Adventist Church noticed that diseases such as malaria, typhoid, measles, sexually transmitted infections, and intestinal parasites were seriously affecting people in the area. The distance to the nearest facility, the Kendu Adventist Hospital some 18 kilometers away, meant that people who were ill mostly went untreated, resulting in a high mortality rate due to otherwise treatable illnesses. The members of the Manyatta Church approached a health worker at the Kendu Adventist Hospital named Elisha Abok, who had been born in the Manyatta area. They asked if he could help them establish a health facility at Manyatta. He agreed to help and wrote a letter to Dr. K. Hart at ADRA Kenya. The area senior chief George Mjumbe certified the letter. Prior to this, Dr. E.C. Kraft (director of the Kendu Mission Hospital), had consulted ADRA about a facility in the area.¹

In 1985, Dr. Hart responded to the letter stating that he would have to personally visit the area to ascertain the viability of the project. On the agreed date, he was received by Elisha Abok, and they began by touring the Kagan area, approaching it from Nyawita and then to Nyalosi, Onjinyo, and finally to Manyatta in the far west of the Kagan area. They also visited the Ndiru Trading Centre before paying a courtesy call on Chief Mjumbe. Dr. Hart spoke to the chief about the need for more health facilities in the area. Chief Mjumbe gave Dr. Hart the greenlight to establish a medical facility to serve the Manyatta and the entire Kagan area. Dr. Hart then drove back to Manyatta, where he briefly attended the assistant chief’s baraza (meeting). The assistant chief, Lameck Onyango, gave Dr. Hart a chance to address the people. Dr. Hart mentioned his intention to establish a medical facility in the area at the proposed site for the Adventist dispensary. The news was warmly received. A building was identified that could be converted into a medical facility, and Elisha Abok agreed to have his wife, who was a nurse at Kendu, leave immediately and be in charge of the new facility. In 1985, Elisha’s wife Esther Abok resigned from Kendu Mission Hospital to take charge of Manyatta.²

Commencing Operations

Early in 1986, Manyatta Adventist Dispensary began operations. Dr. Hart wrote to the then-area District Commissioner Victor Musoga for consent to operate the facility and received positive feedback. A multi-denominational management committee was constituted that comprised of ten Adventists from the local congregation. There was also a member of the Full Gospel Church, one Roman Catholic, one from the New Apostolic Faith, and three from the Provincial administration. The team was headed by Senior Chief George Mjumbe, who held that position until 1989 when he bowed out due to his busy schedule as area administrators. The medical facility was first housed in a rented building that belonged to Dismas Ochieng at the cost of Ksh 300 per month (US$ 18.75).⁴ The management later transferred the facility to a bigger room that belonged to the same landlord, now costing Ksh 400 (US$ 25) per month.⁵

Expanding the Work

During its formative years, ADRA/FPP helped expand the facility and brought in more staff, including Josphine Adija, James Abich, Grace Onyango, Leonard Obonyo, Linet Achieng, Richard Ong’iendo, and Margret Nyamwanda.⁶ The team was drawn from all over the giant Kagan area. The director remained Esther Obok.⁷ Seeing the future prospects of the dispensary, on March 19, 1986, the Adventist Church led a delegation to Pius Okoth, who owned land adjacent to the facility, to request more land for expansion. The delegation, led by Elisha Abok, included Damatis Oketch, Eucabeth Opalla, and Maurice Orimba. The owner of the land readily accepted this request and donated the land on which the facility stands today. The information about the donated land was communicated to Dr. Hart, and he mobilized through ADRA to donate building materials. The materials were available on site in 1989.⁸

The work to construct the facility started in 1989. On January 23, 1990, Dr. Steve Wirth placed a request to the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), a local medical NGO (a nonprofit organization that operates independently of any government, typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue), to help construct a permanent building at Manyatta equipped with a vaccine refrigerator. On October 16, 1990, an allocation of a capital grant for building the dispensary was passed. Members of the local Manyatta Adventist Church were asked to contribute Ksh. 60,000 (US$ 2,608)⁹ to meet the CHAK funding demand. The EAU raised half of the amount, and the other half was covered by CHAK. The Manyatta Adventist Dispensary became a member of CHAK from 1990, paying annual contribution as a dispensary. A series of fundraisers collected Ksh.12,028 (US$ 523),¹⁰ which was used to open a bank account. The amount funded local travel, transportation, meetings, and the purchase of furniture. The construction continued through 1991 and 1992. Services in the new health facility started on its present site upon completion in 1992. Between March 11and 13, 1991, CHAK conducted lead partnership training for the Manyatta Health Committee.¹¹

Takeover by the Kenya Lake Field

In 1998, the Manyatta Adventist Dispensary was handed over to Kenya Lake Field (today the Kenya Lake Conference), which covered Rachuonyo District, Rangwe, Suba, part of Nyamira, and Central Kisii.¹² The formal letter to this effect was sent to the Kenya government’s Ministry of Health, which was based at Homabay in October 2000. This was implemented immediately, and in January 2001, a new management committee was elected that was presided over by Pr. George Okeyo, who was then the executive director of the Kenya Lake Field.¹³

The Manyatta Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary continues to offer critical services such as immunization, laboratory services, maternity, and handling medical emergencies of all kinds. The facility serves a population of about 5,500. It operates with two nurses, a clinical officer, a laboratory technician, two HTC counselors,¹⁴ and a security guard. Esther Abok oversees the facility since her husband, Elisha Abok, has now retired. The facility serves an average of 600 patients every month.

Future Plans

Future plans include expansion of the infrastructure to allow it to be upgraded from Level Two to a Level Three facility, according to the grading by the Kenya government. There are also plans to establish a radiology department.¹⁵

Sources

Records at the Health Department of the Kenya Lake Conference, Kendu Bay, Kenya.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association. Various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

Elisha Abok, telephone interview by the author, March 15, 2021.↩
Ibid.↩
Records at the Health Department at the Kenya Lake Conference.↩
The Exchange rate in 1986 averaged $1 to Sh.16 (https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/kenya/exchange-rate-against-usd).↩
Ibid.↩
Records at the Health Department at the Kenya Lake Conference.↩
Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1988), 531.↩
Esther Obok, telephone interview by the author, March 15, 2021.↩
The Exchange rate in 1990 averaged $1 to Sh.23 (https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/kenya/exchange-rate-against-usd).↩
Ibid.↩
Records at the Health Department of the Kenya Lake Conference, Kendu Bay, Kenya.↩
Ibid.↩
Ibid.↩
HIV Testing and Counseling.↩
Esther Obok, telephone interview by the author, March 15, 2021.↩