Setting Up, Part 1

The French have a saying, “Rien n’est simple”, or “Nothing is simple”, and it seems to very true when working in Africa. It is not that it is necessarily intentionally so, it just is. There is a lot of leg work to do before you actually open a clinic, and even when you know what you are doing, it can be daunting. And when you don’t? Well let me tell you.

I came to Kenya last December, with the intention of starting the process of registering the clinic and getting my medical license to practice medicine in Kenya. I was actually here with Andrew Smith and Aaron Sindt, two young men whom I accompanied to a youth retreat in Nyamasaria, just outside of Kisumu. The youth retreat was a wonderful event, with 150 people in attendance.

But that’s another story. I had gotten the Mildred Smith Mission Health Center (MSMHC) registered in Missouri as an LLC under African Restoration Ministries in Missouri, on the advice of both Kenyan and US lawyers, who assured me that registering and operating the clinic would be much simpler and less prone to corrupt practices if it was a foreign LLC doing business in Kenya, rather than a Kenyan business. The afternoon the retreat ended, I decided to see about opening a Kenyan bank account for the MSMHC in Kisumu. Local recommendations sent me to the Barclays Bank in Kisumu. When I told them that I was enquiring about opening a business account, I was escorted to the upper floor, and given papers to fill out. I told them I was really just enquiring about the cost of the account and the checking, etc., and they said they would get me a sheet that would have all of the options and costs. Instead, they brought the director, Ronald Mokaya. When I explained about the planned clinic, he told me that the home office of his bank liked to partner with programs that helped in the community, so they would set up 2 bank accounts, one for US dollars, and one in Kenyan shillings, so that we could transfer dollars to shillings only when the exchange rate was good, and added that both would be free with free checking! He even stayed late to give me the information on what I needed from the Kenyan government to be able to open the accounts.

I planned to have two days in Nairobi before our departure, and even bought tickets to travel, when I was informed the next day was Jamhuri Day, Kenyan Independence Day, which is a national holiday, so everything would be closed.

We were leaving for home the next night from Nairobi, so while Andrew and Aaron went to visit another place for missionary work, I was going to stay in Nairobi to look into getting my medical license and getting the clinic registered with the government, so I could open the bank account.

I decided to try using Uber, so they dropped me off on Mombasa Road, and I opened the Uber App on my phone. The traffic was very heavy, as it always is on a weekday morning going into downtown Nairobi, and the first Uber driver was on the wrong side of the road, stuck in traffic, and eventually gave up on me. The next 4 drivers who tried to get to me were either thwarted by traffic, or my English not being sufficient to understand my explanations of where I was, or they just didn’t contact me at all after picking up my ride request! Driver number 6 finally found me, and part of the mystery was solved when he asked me about my phone number. Even though I was using a Kenyan SIM card in my iPhone, my Uber account was linked to my American phone, so when the drivers picked me up, they were given a US phone number to call. That was too expensive for most, so they just rejected the ride or didn’t show up. Lesson learned. After that, whenever I connected with an Uber driver, I would immediately text them my Kenyan phone number, and it worked perfectly the rest of the day.

I first went to the Medical Practice and Dental Board office and met Winnie, who was very helpful in explaining which of the applications was the one I needed to fill out. When it came time for the fee, they did not take credit cards, so I had to go to an ATM to get the required cash. The office is just down the street from Hurlingham, which was where our house was when we lived in Nairobi in 2007. Besides a big new KFC restaurant, not much else had changed, so I kind of knew my way around the place, and found the ATM and the photo studio where I could get the required passport style pictures.

The last thing I needed was a letter stating where I would be working. While I was in Kisumu, I had spoken with some medical students from Uzima University School of Medicine, and asked them where I should go to get the best experience in treating the local population. They told me I should go to Jaromogi Oginga Odinga Referral and Teaching Hospital (JOORTH) the district hospital for Kisumu county. They’d directed me to Dr. H. P. Awour, who put me in contact with Dr. Ndinya, the Chief of Medicine at JOORTH. I as able to meet him at the hospital, and give him my C.V. and copies of license and diploma. I had not known about the letter earlier, so I called him to see if he could email a copy to me and the medical board. He said he would try.

Winnie told me she could collect everything else and award me the license in 24 hours of receiving the letter, but that was the best we could do. It was actually a very quick and efficient process, once you knew what to do.

My next stop was the immigration office in downtown Nairobi. There I found a hundred or so people spilling out of the standing room only office, and a single worker whose only answer to any enquiring (not just mine) was to say ”Take a number”. As I was clueless as to which queue I should take a number for, and was pretty sure my number would not be reached anytime that day, I decided to consult a law office about registering the business.

I took an Uber to the office, and found Charlene, who was exceptionally patient and helpful in explaining that the registering was actually something that was done online. She directed me to the e-Citizen site for business, explained the process, gave me her contacts in case I had any issues, and refused to take any payment for her time.

The first step in registering a business in Kenya is to have them do a search to make sure the name is not already in use. I did all of the work online, but when it came time to make the payment, it was required that you use M’pesa, the Safaricom phone payment system. I had a Safaricom SIM card, but had not activated M’pesa,

Another Uber ride got me to the Safaricom office in the Westlands shopping center, where I was able to activate M’pesa and pay the fee.

I have to say I was impressed and humbled by the willingness of so many to help me out, and each of them expressed their thanks for the project, and their desire to do just what small thing they could to help it along. That spirit of Harambe, or working together, is really what is bringing the dream of the Mildred Smith Mission Health Center into reality.