College Hosts Delegation from East African Community

The Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) on Wednesday (June 5, 2024) hosted a delegation from the East African Community (EAC) as part of the EAC’s initiative to establish Regional Centres of Excellence (RCoEs) in partner countries to deliver high-quality health services.

Kenya will host the East Africa Kidney Institute, while the East Africa Oncology Institute will be located in Uganda. Tanzania is set to host the East Africa Heart Institute, and Rwanda will establish the East Africa Biomedical Engineering Institute, including e-health facilities.

The delegation, comprised of top health officials from Tanzania, was on a fact-finding mission to learn from Kenya’s East Africa Kidney Institute (EAKI) project, spearheaded by KMTC, the Ministry of Health, the University of Nairobi, and Kenyatta National Hospital.

CEO Dr. Kelly Oluoch welcomed the visit, highlighting that the collaboration will facilitate exchange programmes between Kenya and Tanzania. “It is through such forums that we learn together. In the end, the winner is the patient,” he said.

Dr. Oluoch emphasized KMTC’s extensive training experience in middle-level health workers, which Tanzania can leverage to strengthen its center of excellence.The EAKI project, now in its final stages of development, aims to address the burden of chronic kidney diseases in the EAC region.

Dr. Stella Malangahe, an Assistant Director in the Department of Haematology and Oncology at Benjamin Mkapa Hospital (BMH), thanked KMTC for its hospitality.She noted that RCoEs are designed for cross-knowledge sharing and will provide quality education, vocational training, and research opportunities to students and practitioners in the health sector.