About Kenya Medical Training College-Nyeri

Ø  Location

Just as a recap if you missed my previous introduction into Nyeri town. KMTC Nyeri is located in Nyeri County, which is located 150km form Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. It will take you about 2hours to step foot in Nyeri from Nairobi. KMTC Nyeri is embraced within Nyeri Provincial Hospital, which is located approximately 500meters from what many will call Nyeri Town. This is where most of the practical works are done.

Ø  Brief History (according to KMTC official website)

The college was started in 1948 as a School of Nursing where it was training Kenya Enrolled Nurses. Later the institution started Enrolled Community Health Nursing programme and later on the first class of KRCHN (Diploma) was started in March 1995. In 1977, the Department of Environmental Health Sciences was started where it was training Certificate course in Public Health Technicians but was later upgraded to Diploma level.
Certificate course in Medical Laboratory Sciences was started in 1981 until later when it started training Diploma programme.
In September 2005, the Department of Clinical Medicine was started and qualitated its first class in 2008. In September 2010, the college saw two new departments pumped into its system, being Department of Pharmacy and The Department of Imaging Science.

Ø  Courses

Currently KMTC-Nyeri offers six Medical related diploma courses;

ü  Pharmacy

ü  Medical Imaging Science

ü  Clinical Medicine

ü  Public Health Technologists

ü  Environmental Health Science

ü  Nursing

ü  Enrolled Nurse/Midwives upgrading course into KRCH Basic

ü  Distance Learning Programme for enrolled Community Health nurses into KRCHN Basic

Ø  Administration

As it is with all KMTC colleges, Nyeri MTC is headed by a principal (MRS.GRACE MBUTHIA), Deputy Principal (insert name) Departmental Heads, Section Heads, Lectures and Supportive Staff. Well the rank according to the website http://www.kmtc.ac.ke, but we have a student council, which is ‘inactive’ because I haven’t seen any of the representatives come around.

Ø  Sport

We have a variety of games within the college; although most of the practices are done outside the college in a nearby Secondary School (St. Mary’s), this is so because there isn’t enough land in the hospital to ‘waste’ in construction of fields and whatever, this is a medical school, period! Some of the games include; Badminton, Basketball, Football, Netball, Handball, Table Tennis, Volleyball, a variety of indoor games including Chess (if lucky, you might find me here), Scrabble among others.

Ø  Entertainment/Computing

If you are a party monster, then prepare yourself for the worst when it comes to this sector. All Nyeri MTC has as entertainment is a TV with an aerial (no DSTV), which is in the so-called-Dining Hall. This therefore means that what you can watch is entirely dependant upon the local TV station which is limited to NTV, Citizen, K24 and KTN. I once saw E-Africa, but I don’t know where it disappeared to. Usually the TV will be on when students are out of class (Lunch time, or after classes). Nyeri MTC’s I.T department needs serious improvement. What the college offers are eight computers, internet-enabled, fast enough but not enough in number for the large community of wannabe Medics. I.T opens about 9:00am and usually closes at 4:30 pm. (this means one thing, you can only have access to this section either when you have no class, or risk skipping one to do your research. This is because; classes run from 8:00am to 4:00pm or 6:00pm depending on which department you are in, with breaks at 10:00am ad 12:30pm.

Ø  Religious Matters

I don’t know if we have other religion in this college, but the main two are Christians and Muslims. Christian are further subdivided into; Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic Association and Christian Union. Each movement runs its own program;

·         SDA

SDAs worship on Saturday, and will either be in the college for an internal service, or will be out to the Mother church, Nyeri SDA (usual every first Sabbath of every month) or will be out to other Sabbath Schools for a rally or so. They also do meet every Wednesday and Friday evenings for encouragement and prayers.

·         Catholic

Catholics worship on Sunday, and normally will be out every Sunday to the mother church for Mass. They hold internal Masses every Wednesday evenings at the College’s hall. Friday evenings have less activities for the CA(as it is called), as on the choir meet for practice, although more activities do accompany it.

·         CU

CU also worships on Sunday, and will always hold their services internally at the College’s hall. They also do meet on Mondays after-classes for….is it intercessory? Something like that. CU forms the largest religious movement in this campus, as it envelopes many denominations into the CU community.

·         Muslims

I have interacted with most of them to know how they do their things, but they usually meet at the mosque every Friday.

I don’t know if I covered everything about the religious aspect of MTC Nyeri... normally debates do come up about the ones religion and religious believes, with the most common being the Day of Worship, How to Pray e.t.c. this are commons debates which leaves us one big happy family.

Ø  Buildings

MTC Nyeri has a few buildings here and there, the main buildings are Block A and Block B, which are hosts to some classes, offices and the library. We also have a new building, (I don’t now what they will call it) which host the Pharmacy labs and others classes plus the new departmental offices which are slowly being occupied by the relevant departments. Block A, majors mainly on Female hostels (192 hostels), the Dining Hall, the IT department, the principal’s office (which should be re-locating into the new building)….Block B, majors on Male hostels (192 hostels), the Library, some classes and offices.

The Dining Hall is one hell of a mess, which I will talk about later on.

Ø  Hostelling

A single room is home to four individuals, resting on two double-decker beds. There is electricity (sockets and florescent tubes for male and Bulbs for female). Though it is stated clearly in the school rules that no electrical gadgets are allowed, most rooms have entertainment systems ranging from simple TVs, Woofers, Radios, DVD Players and Computers. (At this age, that rule should be done away with).

Ø  Freedom and Rules

As it is in any learning institution, MTC-Nyeri has rules and regulations which students are supposed to follow. One hard rule one that give the administration a ‘hell-on-earth’ is that of uniform.  The rule demands that, all students should be in uniform when attending classes or when doing ‘rounds’ in the hospital. Of course the rule is adhered to with no much hustle, but what happens when the weather changes? You have to adjust yourself but the problem is, the school uniform is rigid to weather changes, hence will lead to; me wearing a Combat jumper on my school uniform, while my female desky decides to wear her jeans and civilian top under the school uniform. Scuffs and gloves are common, not bad trying to keep warm in a rather cold Nyeri climate; the school should understand that…

I would not like to go another rule that forbids Female students from entering male hostels and vice versa…that will be a story for another day.

I don’t know about you, but you will never find me walking in the streets with my uniform. After classes, I transform into my rather comfortable casual wear, am not into this official clothing style, Jeans, T-shirt and my white ‘South Pole’ do it for me after classes.

Ø  Parting Shot

Come, have fun, socialize, learn everything that there is to learn, but make sure you pass your EXAMS.