Karen Hospital Founder Dies

The Karen Hospital founder and board chairperson, Dr James Mageria, is dead.

Dr Mageria succumbed to cancer on Friday morning, September 24, 2021.

The Hospital co-founders, directors, and current proprietors, Dr Daniel and Betty Gikonyo expressed sorrow at the loss and remembered Mageria as a man of principle and one who had a vision of developing quality healthcare in the country. Dr Betty described the journey they had undertaken with Dr Mageria to build the Karen Group, noting that commitment and hard work went into the project and the late doctor was highly involved.

“He was a man who kept time. He was very particular about time, routine and policies and he led our board very ably for 14 years.”

“We had a person who was a giant in terms of experience, in terms of ability to communicate with stakeholders as well as to teach and mentor and he has left a big gap that we shall find difficult to fill,” she stated.

Dr Gikonyo stated that Dr Mageria is someone who he tried to emulate for his hard work, diligence and without any form of blemish.

“I tried to emulate and follow in his footsteps. If nothing else, in the footsteps of working honestly and diligently. In summary, if we had three of four people like him in Kenya, this country would get very far,” he stated.

Dr Mageria studied at Alliance High School in the early 1960s before joining the police service where he rose to the position of Commandant in charge of Kiganjo Police Training College in 1966.

He left Kiganjo and was appointed to head the traffic department in Nairobi City. Dr Mageria later became the chairman of the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK).

In the 1980s, he worked in the US with a group called Prison Fellowship International, rehabilitating prisoners in America. The work revolved around setting up centres for people who had served jail terms and needed rehabilitation.

From there, Dr Mageria joined World Vision and became the Vice President of World Vision in Africa before becoming a co-founder of the Karen Hospital.