Eunice Muringo Kiereini (born 1939) is a retired nurse who was

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's Chief Nursing Officer from 1968 to 1986, with responsibility for overseeing and developing nursing in Kenya after independence. She has served in many different health organisations, at home and abroad, and was the first African president of the

International Council of Nurses The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations. It was founded in 1899 and was the first international organization for health care professionals. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerl ...

(ICN).

Early years

Eunice Muringo Githae was born on 24 September 1939 in

Kerugoya Kerugoya is the biggest town in Kirinyaga County. Kerugoya is located 10 kilometres east of Karatina and 40 kilometres west of Embu. It is situated in the former District of Kirinyaga. Travel directions by road from Nairobi, is through Thika roa ...

to parents who were both teachers. After secondary education at Loreto High School in

Limuru Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It is also the name of a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. The population of the town, as of 2004, was about 4,800. In a census taken in 2019 the population had increased to 159,314. Loc ...

she went to the UK to train at

Southampton General Hospital Southampton General Hospital (SGH) is a large teaching hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, England run by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded in 1900 as the Southampton Union Infirmary in Sh ...

from 1959–1962. Once she had qualified as a nurse she went to the

Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion The Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson Memorial Pavilion was a maternity hospital in Lauriston, Edinburgh, Scotland. Its services have now been incorporated into the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France. History Midwifery in Edinbur ...

in Edinburgh for midwifery training, completing it in 1964. She worked at George VI hospital, now

Kenyatta National Hospital The Kenyatta National Hospital is the oldest hospital in Kenya. It is a public, tertiary, referral hospital for the Ministry of Health. It is also the teaching hospital of the University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences. It is the 2nd l ...

, before doing additional training at the Victoria University School of Nursing in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

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. Back in Kenya, she became President

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...

's private nurse. From 1967 she played a key role in establishing the National Nurses Association of Kenya, an organisation given legal status in 1968. She is the second wife of Jeremiah Kiereini, senior civil servant and businessman, in 1971.

Career

Kiereini was Chief Nursing Officer at the Ministry of Health from 1968 to 1986, following Matron-in-Chief Margaret Wanjiru Koinange who had filled a similar role for the first few years of

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

, and she was responsible for many developments in nursing and nursing education. These included the first advanced nursing course in East Africa which was offered at

Nairobi University , mottoeng = In unity and work , image = Uon emblem.gif , image_size = 210px , caption = Coat of Arms of the University , type = Public , endowment ...

, a shift from colonial-era hospital-based healthcare towards more community nursing, and a Nurses Act giving professional nurses more independence.Flying Doctors’ Society of Africa Council Members
/ref> In the mid-1970s she was on the African Health Training Institutions Project's consultative group for nursing, midwifery and allied health professions, sponsored by

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

, and was a founder member of the Kenya Water for Health Organisation. She was the first African president of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) from 1981 to 1985 after being a Board Member of the Commonwealth Nurses and Midwives Federation from 1977 to 1979.

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

awarded Kiereini an Honorary Fellowship in 1986. In the early 1990s she was a member of the Global Advisory Council on AIDS, and was involved in various ways with the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO), partly as chairman of the Regional Nursing Task Force based in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. She has also been a consultant to the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. Positions since 2010 include chairman of the council of the Flying Doctors Society of Africa, chairman of Impact East Africa, and a trustee of the Rattansi Educational Trust.

Relatives

She has several influential siblings, notably her sister, writer

Micere Githae Mugo Micere Githae Mugo (born Madeleine Micere Githae in 1942) is a playwright, author, activist, instructor and poet from Kenya. She is a literary critic and professor of literature in the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse Univers ...

, and brother

Robinson Njeru Githae Robinson Njeru Githae is a Kenyan politician. He belongs to the Party of National Unity and was elected to represent the Ndia Constituency in the National Assembly of Kenya since the Kenyan parliamentary election, 2002. He has served as assista ...

, a government minister. Their father was the teacher Solomon Githendui Githae (1904-2007).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiereini, Eunice Muringo 1939 births Living people Kenyan nurses Victoria University of Wellington alumni People from Kirinyaga County