New KMTC campus changes fortunes of Mbuvo township

Around this time last year, Mbuvo was one of the many sleepy shopping centres dotting the countryside in Makueni County.

This image of the trading centre on the Makindu-Wote road has changed drastically since a Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) satellite campus was built in Mbuvo.

Mbuvo has since entered the league of busy cosmopolitan towns in Makueni.

The KMTC campus in Mbuvo offers certificate and diploma courses in nursing, health records, community health assistant and orthopaedics.

The satellite campus, which is hosted at an idle maternity wing of Mbuvo Dispensary, has 450 students, according to its principal Francis Maina.

Apart from reinvigorating the hospital which was on the verge of collapse, the campus has contributed to the mushrooming of eateries, cyber cafes, bars, groceries, conventional shops and other businesses in Mbuvo.

Residents, mostly farmers, have reported booming meat, fruit and vegetable business.

Hospitality industry has been the biggest beneficiary of the medical college.

“In the beginning, we asked families around to accommodate the students for a fee. Many did so. This situation has since changed after investors built hotels and hostels in Mbuvo,” area chief Dominic Munyao told Higher Education.

Ms Mary Mutua is among the investors who took advantage of the establishment of the campus to make an extra coin.

She converted two of her rental houses to a hostel that has become very popular with trainee healthworkers.  Ms Mutua is building another hostel.

“This college came to our rescue when we were almost closing shop,” she said.

The Mbuvo satellite campus is linked to the Makueni campus which is among the three campuses the government set up in Makueni County as the medical college moved to assert itself strategically with the rollout of universal health care.

“Through partnership with devolved governments, NG-CDF and others, our campuses grew from 28 in 2014 to 71 in 2021,” former KMTC Board chairman Philip Kaloki said when leaving office last year.

KMTC students dominate night life in Makueni. The students also hone their skills at local hospitals in a deal signed by KMTC and the devolved government.

So inspiring is the transformative story of KMTC campuses that Makueni leaders have called for the establishment of a university in the county.

“A public university can create more business opportunities and grow our economy,” Bishop Jackson Muema of Deliverance Church said recently.

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