upepo
Elder Lister
by JOHN MUCHANGI
In Summary
•He retired from the faculty of the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School on August 27, 2021 but continues with private medical practice at his clinic at the hospital.
•“If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which is what I have done.”
For many doctors, it is difficult to say goodbye to a career they adore and one that forms a major part of their identity. And sometimes, it is the long-time clients who refuse to let the doctor go, says Dr Joab Bodo, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. He has practised medicine for 58 years since his posting to the former King George VI (now Kenyatta National Hospital) as an intern in 1963.
“If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which is what I have done,” Dr Bodo told the Star in his office at Aga Khan. He is still spry but soft-spoken. Bodo’s memory is still sharp and he walks with a steady gait.
He retired from the faculty of the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School on August 27 but continues with private medical practice at his clinic at the hospital. This makes him one of the few Independence-era Kenyan doctors still practising today. He began practising when the profession in Kenya was a white man’s turf in which black doctors were not allowed to treat white patients. There was also little specialisation. Today, his orthopaedic specialty has been split further into various subspecialties.
“When you practise medicine, learning continues. You have to continue learning, attending conferences. Even at 84 years, I must attend conferences,” he explains. Dr Bodo proudly wears a badge and a tie that signifies he is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, a professional qualification required to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bodo was born at Nyahera Health Centre (now a subcounty hospital) in Kisumu on February 2, 1935. He is the third born in a family of eight siblings. His childhood involved travelling between Kisumu where his mother lived and Nairobi where his father, Thomas Okudo Okore, worked at the Government Printer.
Bodo schooled at Ogada Mission School (now AIC Ogada Primary School) before he proceeded to Nyang’ori Secondary School. “And from nowhere Carey Francis selected me from Nyang’ori to join Alliance High School,” he says. He later joined Makerere University for preliminary training in 1956 before joining the university's medical school. “I graduated from Medical School in 1963 and came to King George VI for internship. It was later renamed KNH when we were there. Njoroge Mungai was a doctor there. He was among the people who stimulated that the name should change.”
“My salary was about Sh1,200 but it was enough. I bought a brand new VW from DT Dobie in 1964. It impressed my wife to be and we got married in 1966.”
Image: MARGARET WANJIRU
Dr Bodo was among the countable African medics at KNH at the time. “The sisters were all white, there were no African nurses.” In 1964, he was posted to Fort Hall District Hospital (now Murang’a County Referral Hospital) where he was the only African doctor. “My salary was about Sh1,200 but it was enough. I bought a brand new VW from DT Dobie in 1964. It impressed my wife to be and we got married in 1966.” Seeing how people suffered with no surgeons around, he had already decided to specialise in general surgery.
His first specialised training was at the King George Hospital followed by the Royal College of Surgeons fellowship in Edinburg in Scotland in 1967. “Becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons meant a lot to me. But I remember one examiner asked me, who have you worked under? I said so and so. One said do you know one of these days we shall examine witchdoctors? I didn’t pay attention to that, having worked in Nairobi I was used to that derogatory language,” he remembers. “In Nairobi, we were not even allowed to treat white patients. They were only treated at by white doctors at Nairobi Hospital.” Bodo returned to Kenya and worked in several hospitals before he was posted to Kisumu as the first African provincial surgeon in Nyanza.
He covered the entire province as the only surgeon, travelling throughout Siaya, Homa Bay, Kisii, and sometimes Kakamega and Kericho. “In 1982, I was posted back to Nairobi to Kabete Orthopaedic Clinic. There used to be a big hospital opposite Njuguna’s, where the President recently launched the construction of a hospital.”
The clinic was folded and transferred to KNH in the 1980s. Bodo retired from government in 1981 to pursue further orthopaedic training in the UK. In 1986, Yusuf Kodwavwala (better known to Kenyans as Yusuf Dawood) appointed him to work at the Aga Khan Hospital. “When the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School came I was section head for 17 years. I’m now not an employee of AKUH Medical School but I remain a private practitioner. They gave me some gifts, but from government it was just a bye bye,” he laughs.
Dr Joad Bodo (centre) on August 27, 2021, during a ceremony to mark his retirement from the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School, where he had been a section head for 17 years.
Image: COURTESY
Bodo says medical training and care have been commercialised in Kenya, which makes him sad.
“Those days if you were a doctor you did your work and that was all. The money was enough. I was able to educate my children, two in India and three in US comfortably,” he explains. “You worked and in the evening played tennis. If you were needed in the theatre you were available to go and work.” He adds, “Now when you go to rural areas, specialists are not available. They may be posted there but they are not in public hospitals and will force you to see them in their private clinics. For us it was different.” None of Bodo’s children followed his career. He only pushed them to study the ‘right’ subjects, such as mathematics.
While he is ready for total retirement, many clients will not let him go. He lost his elder brother recently and stayed in Kisumu for one week. “My house literally became a hospital. I would hate to take medicine to my rural home. I have done enough. Your sleeping time will be affected, when called to go see a patient you must go. Even if it’s 2am, if you say “take the patient to the theatre”, you must go,” he explains. He adds, “If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which I have done.”
In Summary
•He retired from the faculty of the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School on August 27, 2021 but continues with private medical practice at his clinic at the hospital.
•“If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which is what I have done.”
For many doctors, it is difficult to say goodbye to a career they adore and one that forms a major part of their identity. And sometimes, it is the long-time clients who refuse to let the doctor go, says Dr Joab Bodo, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. He has practised medicine for 58 years since his posting to the former King George VI (now Kenyatta National Hospital) as an intern in 1963.
“If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which is what I have done,” Dr Bodo told the Star in his office at Aga Khan. He is still spry but soft-spoken. Bodo’s memory is still sharp and he walks with a steady gait.
He retired from the faculty of the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School on August 27 but continues with private medical practice at his clinic at the hospital. This makes him one of the few Independence-era Kenyan doctors still practising today. He began practising when the profession in Kenya was a white man’s turf in which black doctors were not allowed to treat white patients. There was also little specialisation. Today, his orthopaedic specialty has been split further into various subspecialties.
“When you practise medicine, learning continues. You have to continue learning, attending conferences. Even at 84 years, I must attend conferences,” he explains. Dr Bodo proudly wears a badge and a tie that signifies he is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, a professional qualification required to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bodo was born at Nyahera Health Centre (now a subcounty hospital) in Kisumu on February 2, 1935. He is the third born in a family of eight siblings. His childhood involved travelling between Kisumu where his mother lived and Nairobi where his father, Thomas Okudo Okore, worked at the Government Printer.
Bodo schooled at Ogada Mission School (now AIC Ogada Primary School) before he proceeded to Nyang’ori Secondary School. “And from nowhere Carey Francis selected me from Nyang’ori to join Alliance High School,” he says. He later joined Makerere University for preliminary training in 1956 before joining the university's medical school. “I graduated from Medical School in 1963 and came to King George VI for internship. It was later renamed KNH when we were there. Njoroge Mungai was a doctor there. He was among the people who stimulated that the name should change.”
“My salary was about Sh1,200 but it was enough. I bought a brand new VW from DT Dobie in 1964. It impressed my wife to be and we got married in 1966.”
Image: MARGARET WANJIRU
Dr Bodo was among the countable African medics at KNH at the time. “The sisters were all white, there were no African nurses.” In 1964, he was posted to Fort Hall District Hospital (now Murang’a County Referral Hospital) where he was the only African doctor. “My salary was about Sh1,200 but it was enough. I bought a brand new VW from DT Dobie in 1964. It impressed my wife to be and we got married in 1966.” Seeing how people suffered with no surgeons around, he had already decided to specialise in general surgery.
His first specialised training was at the King George Hospital followed by the Royal College of Surgeons fellowship in Edinburg in Scotland in 1967. “Becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons meant a lot to me. But I remember one examiner asked me, who have you worked under? I said so and so. One said do you know one of these days we shall examine witchdoctors? I didn’t pay attention to that, having worked in Nairobi I was used to that derogatory language,” he remembers. “In Nairobi, we were not even allowed to treat white patients. They were only treated at by white doctors at Nairobi Hospital.” Bodo returned to Kenya and worked in several hospitals before he was posted to Kisumu as the first African provincial surgeon in Nyanza.
He covered the entire province as the only surgeon, travelling throughout Siaya, Homa Bay, Kisii, and sometimes Kakamega and Kericho. “In 1982, I was posted back to Nairobi to Kabete Orthopaedic Clinic. There used to be a big hospital opposite Njuguna’s, where the President recently launched the construction of a hospital.”
The clinic was folded and transferred to KNH in the 1980s. Bodo retired from government in 1981 to pursue further orthopaedic training in the UK. In 1986, Yusuf Kodwavwala (better known to Kenyans as Yusuf Dawood) appointed him to work at the Aga Khan Hospital. “When the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School came I was section head for 17 years. I’m now not an employee of AKUH Medical School but I remain a private practitioner. They gave me some gifts, but from government it was just a bye bye,” he laughs.
Dr Joad Bodo (centre) on August 27, 2021, during a ceremony to mark his retirement from the Aga Khan University Hospital Medical School, where he had been a section head for 17 years.
Image: COURTESY
Bodo says medical training and care have been commercialised in Kenya, which makes him sad.
“Those days if you were a doctor you did your work and that was all. The money was enough. I was able to educate my children, two in India and three in US comfortably,” he explains. “You worked and in the evening played tennis. If you were needed in the theatre you were available to go and work.” He adds, “Now when you go to rural areas, specialists are not available. They may be posted there but they are not in public hospitals and will force you to see them in their private clinics. For us it was different.” None of Bodo’s children followed his career. He only pushed them to study the ‘right’ subjects, such as mathematics.
While he is ready for total retirement, many clients will not let him go. He lost his elder brother recently and stayed in Kisumu for one week. “My house literally became a hospital. I would hate to take medicine to my rural home. I have done enough. Your sleeping time will be affected, when called to go see a patient you must go. Even if it’s 2am, if you say “take the patient to the theatre”, you must go,” he explains. He adds, “If you’re still mentally okay you can slow down, which I have done.”
