In this episode, Anubha speaks with Dr. Benjamin Wachira, Kenya’s first emergency physician and the visionary behind the Emergency Medicine Kenya Foundation (EMKF).

Ben reflects on his journey from a bright-eyed medical student eager to save lives, to recognising a devastating gap in his training: there was no structured preparation for handling patients in life-or-death situations. During his years studying in South Africa, he witnessed trauma cases from stabbings, shootings, and road accidents being treated every day - cases he realised he had never seen in Kenya. The reason was stark: most Kenyan patients in emergencies never made it to the hospital at all.

That realisation set him on a mission to transform emergency care back home. Through EMKF, Ben has worked alongside government and healthcare providers to build a system that was once non-existent. From drafting Kenya’s first national emergency healthcare policy (now enshrined in law) to creating emergency protocols, training frontline providers, and expanding public ambulance services from zero to ten, his work has started to reshape the system. Emergency departments in counties across the country are being renovated and equipped, and thousands of patients are now receiving lifesaving care each year who otherwise would not have had a chance.

As EMKF has grown, its work has reached beyond Kenya, offering research, tools, and lessons to support neighbouring countries as they develop their own systems. Ben’s story is one of persistence and vision, showing how one determined physician can not only save lives at the bedside, but reimagine an entire nation’s approach to emergency care.

Tune in to hear how emergency medicine is being transformed in Kenya, and why Ben believes access to timely care must be recognised as a basic right.

Philanthropod is powered by the Australian International Development Network and hosted by Anubha Rawat.

Thank you to Compact Sound for editing and mixing.

For more information about AIDN, and for more episodes, visit: www.aidnetwork.org.au.

For more information about Emergency Medicine Kenya Foundation, visit: https://www.emergencymedicinekenya.org/

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