About NSIRH
National Spinal Injury Referral Hospital
Brief History
When World II broke out, colonial powers not only focused on winning the war overseas but also protecting their colonies’ borders in Africa. As such, Africans were embroiled in this war as they were called upon by their colonial powers to supply manpower to fight in and out of the continent.
Kenya was a significant recruiting ground for troops for the British Army. As a result, over 98,000 of Kenyans were recruited into the King’s African Rifles (KAR) and deployed in the different warzones including in the successful East African World War II called the Abyssinian War against Italy and its Italian East Africa colony, Madagascar, and Burma.
While the war renewed activism among Kenyans, the aftermath for many soldiers was severe affliction, with spinal cord injuries topping the list of the things they suffered from. This necessitated the provision of specialized spinal injury rehabilitation services for these gallant soldiers, a step that would be the stone on which the National Spinal Injury Referral Hospital – one of Kenya’s five referral hospitals – would stand on.
Early Years
The National Spinal Injury Referral Hospital (NSIRH) is situated along Lenana Road in the serene Kilimani area. The NSIRH is the only public hospital that offers specialized healthcare services to persons with spinal injuries in Kenya and it has a capacity of 33 beds. The core mandate of the NSIRH is to rehabilitate spinal injury patients referred from public and private institutions from the country and even neighboring countries. The NSIRH is housed in a few bungalows that have existed since the 1940s. In its formative years, the buildings were privately owned by Amani Cheshire, who donated the land with the buildings in 1944 for use as a rehabilitation center for soldiers who had sustained spinal cord injuries in World War II. In honor of his generosity, the center was named Amani Cheshire Home.
Amani Cheshire Home operated until 1963, when Kenya acquired its newly independent status. In respect of this, Amani Cheshire handed the institution over to the Government of Kenya, where it was put under the management of Kenyatta National Hospital.
Gaining Institutional Semi-autonomy
In the year 2000, the Ministry of Health allowed the center to run as a semi-autonomous hospital with its own management committee but still under the guardianship of Kenyatta National Hospital.
Three years later in 2003, the hospital management committee was looking for ways to generate more revenue for the hospital, and deemed it t to broaden the hospital’s vision beyond attending to the needs of patients with spinal injuries referred from other public and private hospitals, to cater to the needs of more Kenyans. As a result, the hospital’s services were expanded by the opening of an outpatient unit that offered general healthcare services.
Present Day Status
Spinal Cord Injury constitutes a significant disease percentage in the country due to heightened road traffic accidents and cervical spine injuries, but the National Spinal Injury Referral Hospital remains the only public hospital with the capacity to offer specialized healthcare services to persons with spinal cord injuries.
Beyond being overwhelmed with promoting neurological health for Kenyans, the hospital is also still being housed in bungalows as of March 2024 and founded on only 1.4 acres of land, which hinder expansion, limiting its ability to execute its mandate to the service of 33 beds and a possibility to serve more SCI patients.
