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Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu expanded to improve health of 6.6m

Kenya · 21 February 2024 · 3 min

Princess Zahra Aga Khan and Ms Hélène N’Garnim-Ganga, AFD Regional Director Eastern Africa, help commemorate the milestone at Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu.

AKDN / Akbar Hakim

Kisumu, Kenya, 20 February 2024 – The newly expanded Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu is providing the people of Kenya’s Lake Region with access to quality health services previously unavailable in the community. Transformed from a 70-bed facility into a leading 123-bed secondary hospital with state-of-the-art diagnostic services, the ultra-modern building features a dedicated Accidents and Emergency Unit, a larger Intensive Care Unit, the region’s first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and its first Sleep Lab, which will use cutting-edge technology to diagnose and treat sleep disorders.

Holding the prestigious Level 5 (highest level) certification from SafeCare Health Standards, the hospital offers a range of care in over 30 clinical specialties and subspecialties including cardiology, oncology, neurology, psychiatry, advanced surgeries, family medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, gynaecology, nephrology, orthopaedics, paediatrics and neonatology.

“Located in the central constituency of Kisumu, the third-largest city in the country, Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu is pivotal to our mission of providing critical health services to a population base of nearly 600,000 people and beyond that to the nearly 6.6 million people of the Lake Region,” noted Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Chair of the Executive Committee of the Aga Khan Health Services.

“By being part of a broader, integrated network, the hospital is providing timely, fit-for-purpose care to the people who need it most. It is moving us closer to delivering on our mission of treating disease and caring for people holistically and completely.”

As the leading private hospital in the region, Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu, has consistently expanded its presence and range of services since its establishment in 1952, proactively catering to the evolving needs of the community. It currently serves over 15 counties in the Lake Region and even receives patients from Uganda and Tanzania. Over the years, the hospital has become a hub of qualified doctors and nurses who provide cutting-edge care to the community.

Plans are underway to establish 10 outreach health centres, adding to the existing network of 13. These will strengthen the first line of care in the city and beyond and will establish a seamless network of healthcare facilities that will provide care at every level – from essential health services to community-based comprehensive care to specialist care at the Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu.

The hospital embarked on its expansion journey in 2015 by introducing an MRI facility. Construction of the new building commenced in 2021. This endeavour, amounting to a total investment of nearly $19 million, was made feasible by the significant support of Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

The expansion is a testament to the steadfast partnership between the Government of Kenya, AFD and the Aga Khan Development Network to drive accessibility of affordable quality health care in the country. The collaboration spans many years and projects, including the recent upgrade of the Aga Khan Hospital in Mombasa.

“The project we are celebrating today is a demonstration of AFD’s strong partnership with the Aga Khan Health Services,” said Ms Hélène N’Garnim-Ganga, Regional Director Eastern Africa, AFD. “The project will help improve the health of Kenyans by positioning the Aga Khan Kisumu Hospital as a referral hospital for secondary care, supporting the various outreach health centres affiliated with it in the larger Kisumu region.

“This hospital extension, built with Aga Khan’s Green Building Initiative approach, integrates green solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is an example of how hospitals can adapt to climate change while offering quality care.”