Dr Lee Ngugi

Lee Ngugi: Innovations in Anaesthesia for Safe Surgery

Dr Miriam Mutebi

Welcome to the 23rd scientific conference and 24th AGM of the surgical society of Kenya.

As society we have prepared an international standard conference with both preconference on innovations and the main conference. You will be listening to named lectures, panel discussions, scientific sessions and hands on workshops and seminars. These are aimed at helping us understand how we can make innovations while being safe, affordable and increasing our competency as professionals.

Prof Isaac Macharia

Welcome to the 23rd scientific conference and 24th AGM of the surgical society of Kenya.

As society we have prepared an international standard conference with both preconference on innovations and the main conference. You will be listening to named lectures, panel discussions, scientific sessions and hands on workshops and seminars. These are aimed at helping us understand how we can make innovations while being safe, affordable and increasing our competency as professionals.

Professor Emmanuel Malabo Makasa
MMed(Orth), FCS, MPH, MBChB, BSc.HB

Professor Emmanuel Malabo Makasa is an Adjunct Professor of Global Surgery and the founding director of the Southern Africa Development Community’s University of Witwatersrand Regional Collaboration Centre for Surgical Healthcare Improvement (WitSSurg). He chairs the regional SADC technical experts working group on surgical healthcare and he is a strong advocate for surgical healthcare improvement within health systems strengthening. He has mobilised and coordinated multiple state and none-state actor stakeholders within the United Nations Systems, the Global Health community, within clinical care, and within the social-development ecosystems around surgical systems improvement. He has presented on and published about safe, equitable and affordable universal access to emergency care, critical care, and operative care services in Surgery, Obstetrics and Anaesthesia healthcare under the umbrella of Universal Health Coverage(SDG No .3) and in Emergency Preparedness and Response, in line with the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

Professor Makasa is a consultant and Global Health diplomat active on the global, regional, national and sub-national platforms advancing surgical healthcare policy formulation, integration and analysis, surgical healthcare programming, and service delivery. He currently supports the sixteen SADC Member States and has previously supported and worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO), including the European Investment Bank (EIB). He previously served as the Republic of Zambia’s Health Attaché at the United Nations in Geneva and Vienna (2012-2017) during which time he chaired and led negotiations resulting in resolutions WHA67.15, WHA68.15 and Decision WHA70(22). He was the technical coordinator of the “Geneva African Health Experts” – Health Attachés from the African Union’s Permanent Missions at the UN in Geneva for the year 2014, where he supported the mobilisation and coordination of the international response against Ebola in West Africa.

Prof. Emmanuel Malabo Makasa has senior health systems management experience, having served as Director Holding attached to Health and Wellness in the Public Service Management Division, in the Office of the President of the Republic of Zambia; he has served as Assistant Registrar Licensure of the Health Professionals Council of Zambia and before that as Deputy Director responsible for Emergency Health Services at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Zambia. Prof. Emmanuel Malabo Makasa is a practicing clinician – a consultant Orthopaedics & Trauma surgeon for the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Zambia, based at the University Teaching Hospitals, with interests in musculoskeletal health for children and adolescents.

Professionally, he serves as Honorary Lecturer in Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery for the University of Zambia, School of Medicine. He is an honorary Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East Central & Southern Africa (COSECSA). He also currently serves as a member of the World Health Organisations Expert Advisory Panel on Surgical Care and Anaesthesia (2019-2022); as a member of the Advisory Board of the Pan African Association of Surgeons (PAAS), a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lusaka Orthopaedics Research & Education Trust (LORET) and he serves on the Executive Board of
Africa Directions (AD) – a community-based Lusaka NGO. Prof. Makasa is a member of the Leadership Team of the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and he previously served as a member of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS). He was the Secretary General of the Zambia Medical Association (2007-2008) and the Secretary General of the Surgical Society of Zambia (2006-2007). He was a Visiting Scholar (2018) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS); the Hugh Greenwood Speaker (2017) at the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (BAPS) and the A J Orenstein Lecturer (2017) at the University of Witwatersrand.

Professor Emmanuel Malabo Makasa was a Fulbright Scholar in Global Public Health Epidemiology (2007-2009) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is the COSECSA Rahima Dawood Travelling Fellow for the year 2020/21.

Prof. Jotham Micheni, MMed (Surg); FCS (ECSA), EBS

Prof. Jotham Micheni is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Kenya Methodist University (KeMU), School of Medicine and Health Sciences based in Meru County. He was born in 1956 and brought up in Chuka, Tharaka-Nithi County, in the Eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya. He attended local schools for primary and secondary education and later Thika High School before admission into the University of Nairobi in 1977. He holds MB;ChB and MMed (Surgery) degrees from the UoN, and is a Fellow of the College of  Surgeons(ECSA).

He is among the pioneer faculty staff at the Kenya Methodist University; School of Medicine and has contributed immensely to the establishment of the MB;ChB programme at the University which opened its doors to the first cohort of students in 2011. There have been five graduating cohorts so far.

Prof. Micheni is a General and Laparoscopic Surgeon trained at the University of Nairobi for his undergraduate and post-graduate studies, as well as the Tel Aviv University in Israel for his sub-specialization in Endoscopic Surgery.

He has been a Career Public Servant who worked in Public Service from 1983 up to 2011 when he retired at Kenyatta National Hospital having served in various positions in Surgery and in Administration.  He served as the CEO of KNH from 2006 to 2011. During this period he participated and contributed to the Health Sector Policy Formulation and Implementation. At the same time he provided stewardship to  re-engineer KNH and improve services and facilities to the extent of reclaiming its rightful position in the national referral system and the region at large. This helped the hospital reclaim its national status through provision of high quality specialized  healthcare in collaboration with the University of Nairobi and other relevant national institutions of higher learning in the health sector. The hospital was able to carry out its mandate and participated appropriately in policy formulation and facilitating relevant medical training.

He is currently teaching Surgery at KeMU and practicing at the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital (MeTRH), the designated teaching hospital for the University. Prof. Micheni actively participates in mentorship of colleagues in the surgical/medical fraternity alongside teaching and surgical practice in the greater Meru region.

He is actively involved in the leadership of many schools, hospitals and other learning institutions in the Mt. Kenya East region. He is the current Chairperson of the MeTRH and has successfully served as Chairperson of the PCEA Chogoria Hospital and Chuka County Referral Hospital, all of which have undergone tremendous transformation into regional centres of excellence.

He continues to participate in many community and international programmes of health care, education and social development. Of particular note is the Operation Smile International programme on craniofacial and other congenital anomalies; various SSK surgical outreach programmes for neglected tropical surgical diseases.

He is an ardent believer in integrity, good governance and service above self. He is a Rotarian at heart and deeds, and is an active member of the Rotary Club of Nithi. He has received many awards and honours. He is an Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS), awarded in 2012, in recognition of the great service and contribution towards the transformation in the health sector in Kenya.

At 67 years of age today, he has a wealth of experience in his profession and administration; in good corporate governance, leadership and management that he cherishes to share for the improvement of the healthcare in Kenya and the region at large. He trained on corporate governance, leadership and management under the auspices of Commonwealth Governance in the National University of Singapore during his tenure at the KNH in the days gone by. He is also a trained and certified Trustee.

He is a dedicated Christian and a committed family man, and is happily married with three (3) adult children. He wishes you all fruitful deliberations in this important meeting.

Dr. Wekesa Masasabi

Welcome to the 23rd scientific conference and 24th AGM of the surgical society of Kenya.

As society we have prepared an international standard conference with both preconference on innovations and the main conference. You will be listening to named lectures, panel discussions, scientific sessions and hands on workshops and seminars. These are aimed at helping us understand how we can make innovations while being safe, affordable and increasing our competency as professionals.

Chief Guest: Prof Salome Maswime

Salome Maswime is a full Professor and Head of the Global Surgery Division at the University of Cape Town; an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. She is a World Economic Forum Young Scientist; Next Einstein Fellow; vice-President of the Women in Global Health; and President of the South African Clinician Scientists Society.

After specialising she completed her MMED and Ph.D. in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She did a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has a diploma in Project Management (Varsity College) and a Certificate in Leading Organisations and Change (MIT). She is a section editor of the Plos Global Public Health Journal. She is a member of the Academy of Sciences South Africa.

She has received numerous awards for her research contribution to maternal health, including the trailblazer and young achiever award by the President of South Africa in 2017. In 2021she was named among 20 Young Shapers of the Future in Health and Medicine by Encyclopedia Brittanica.