Message from the Dean
Dr. Patrick M. Kerre
Dean, School of Public Health
The School of Public Health was established in October 1998 as the Institute of Public Health, initially to offer graduate training. The pioneer class of students, Master of Public Health (MPH) joined in 1999/2000 Academic year. During reorganization in the University in 2005, The BSc. Environmental Health programme was moved from the then faculty of Health Sciences to the School of Public Health. Also three departments were moved to the School then; Environmental Health, Epidemiology & Nutrition and Health Services Management. Since then a number of reviews have been carried out in the programmes offered in recognition of the need for training high level manpower in Public Health. The training programmes of the School have been developed to meet the University's mission of producing skilled and practical health professionals who will contribute towards the realization of the country's national goals laid out in The Vision 2030 and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As a public health leader, the School bears unique responsibility for research that improves the health of populations and informs policy and programming for effective public health interventions. The goal of our academic programmes is to instill in our students values of lifelong learning, inquiry and public service. The corner stone of our outreach strategy is to engage communities, leaders, professionals and other stakeholders within and beyond the University as partners in the mission of public health.
Roll of Deans
Since 1998 the listed Deans have served and made significant contribution to the growth of the School.
- Prof. Wilson Odero October, 1998 - June, 2005
- Prof. Joseph k. Rotich June, 2005 - September, 2007
- Dr. Diana Menya September, 2007 - August, 2009
- Prof. Peter M. Gatongi August, 2009 - August, 2011
- Prof. Grace K. Ettyang August, 2011 - August, 2017
- Prof. Mabel Nangami August, 2017 - October 2022
Programmes
To advance our excellence in research, education and outreach for preventive and promotive health care requires a diversified academic programme that are market driven. The School has 3 curricula approved by the Commission for University Education (CUE) and 2 under review at the University. These are:
Current CUE approved programmes:
The B.Sc. Environmental Health Programme aims at producing a graduate who will approach environmental health issues with a holistic global perspective and critically analyze problems with a view to integrating theory and practice in the assessment and provision of preventive and promotive health care services.
The Masters of Public Health programme provides learning opportunities to students across the health sciences in public health disciplines, competencies and skills important to their professions. To achieve our vision of being a regional and international centre for excellence in the training, research, practice, research and consultancy in Public Health.
The Master of Science in Field Epidemiology aims to increase epidemiologic workforce capacity in Kenya by training public health professionals with knowledge and skills for enhanced disease surveillance, outbreak investigations and response nationwide. This is a collaborative training with the Ministry
Programmes under review:
Two undergraduate programmes are currently under review at the University
- BSc. Human Nutrition which will advance the scientific study of Human Nutrition and its application in the enhancement of human health
- BSc. Health Informatics which aims to build capacity in health records management and contribute to better health care delivery.
Departments
The school has 3 departments:
- Epidemiology and Biomedicalstatistics
- Human Nutrition and Health Policy and Management
- Environmental Health and Disaster Risk Management
Collaborations
The School collaborates with a number of national and international organizations including:
- Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
- Amref Health Africa and AMREF International University
- DAAD
- Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH)
- Kenya Red Cross and International Rescue Committees
- Indiana University
- Duke University
- University of Toronto
- Kenyan Ministry of Health (MoH)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- VLIR (Belgium)
- Erasmus University Medical Center (The Netherlands)
- Alexandra University (Cairo)
- Liverpool University (London)
- Consortium of Universities under the One Health collaboration in Central and East Africa (OHCEA).
Future Plans
The School is currently developing 7 advanced degree programmes:
Proposed Post graduate Programmes
- MSc. Disaster Management
- MSc. Occupational Safety and Health
- MSc. Global Health and Infectious Diseases
- MSc. Biostatistics
- MSc. Human Nutrition
- PhD Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- PhD Health Systems Management
- PhD Global Health and Infectious Diseases
Centres of Excellence:
The School, working with collaborating partners seeks to establish two centres of excellence in Public Health.
- Centre of Excellence in Global Health and Infectious Diseases
- Center of Excellence in Leadership and Governance for Health Systems