Parklands High School, Nairobi

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Early Nairobi Surgeon’s Diary
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In 1902, an outbreak of bubonic plague was reported in Nairobi. As part of extreme measures to stop the outbreak, the Indian Bazaar, which was in those days situated somewhere close to the Nairobi Railway Station, was ordered razed down.
Ironically, a Goan doctor who recommended the cleansing of the Bazaar himself lived there. His name was Dr. Rosendo Ayres Ribeiro.
Following successful containment of the plague, the Indian Bazaar was rebuilt at a new site a mile and a half away from its original location, this new location being the city’s Biashara Street today.
Dr. Ribeiro, after whom Dr. Ribeiro Parklands High School in Nairobi is named (he donated the land on which the school was built), was the first doctor to set up a private medical practice in this bustling town, which also hosted the headquarters of the British East African Protectorate (EAP).
May I point out that another Goan, Dr. Luis Lobo, was the first Indian doctor to set up a private practice in British East Africa Protectorate. He arrived and settled in Mombasa in 1898 and went ahead to set up the practice immediately afterwards.
He was joined by Dr. Ribeiro, who arrived on the mainland in May 1899. Within six months of his arrival, Dr. Ribeiro set up a private practice in Nairobi.
Dr. L.A. da Gama was the next Indian doctor to settle in Kenya, in 1903. Like Dr. Lobo, he decided to set up a practice in Mombasa. Indeed, Dr. da Gama was the first Indian doctor in Kenya registered to practice in East Africa under the Medical Registration Ordinance that came into effect in 1910.
According to Anna Greenwood and Harshad Topiwala, authors of the book Indian Private Doctors In Kenya: 1895-1940, Dr. da Gama already had a qualification from the University of Bombay that entitled him to the afore-mentioned registration. Contrariwise, Dr. Lobo and Dr. Ribeiro were licensed, as opposed to registered, to practice medicine.
In a previous post, I pointed out that Dr. Ribeiro was a veterinary doctor (well, he had a soft spot for four-legged creatures in particular). It turns out that I was mistaken. Dr. Ribeiro was actually a specialist Surgeon and an MRCS (Member Of The Royal College of Surgeons). In his practice, he had an assistant, one C. Lobo.
Of the three afore-mentioned doctors, Dr. Ribeiro was the most eccentric. A tamed zebra, by which bizarre means he visited the sick around Nairobi, made him famous all over.
He attended to patients of all races without discrimination. Some of them were Somalis. Indeed, he is the one who discovered the bubonic plague among two of his Somali patients.
In his memoirs, the surgeon paints a picture of how the novelty of western medicine clashed with cultural practices and religious beliefs of various communities in Kenya.
But before we touch on Dr. Ribeiro’s memoirs, it is also good to understand how central Nairobi was like in the period after 1902.
Firstly, the dusty Victoria Street (Tom Mboya Street today) was the hub of European commerce. For supplies and auxiliary labour, the Europeans relied a great deal on Asian skills available at the nearby (and new-ish) Indian Bazaar. Indeed, a lot of European businesses expanded with the assistance of pioneer Indian merchants.
The Asian community operating from the Bazaar served all races without discrimination.
Majority of the Indians, being vegetarians, wanted nothing to do with Somalis. Well, according to Sociology expert and writer Gavin Kitching, a number of Somalis had set up butcheries and meat supply businesses for hotels and individuals alike. I do not know where exactly in central Nairobi the Somalis pitched their businesses, but it is very unlikely they rented premises within the bazaar in my view as this would have offended vegetarian Asians.
On the edges of the bazaar towards River Road existed various African businesses. Some African women rented premises near the bazaar to provide all manner of services, mostly domestic, but including prostitution.
So we had a bustling town built upon marshy ground, a melting pot of c

If you remember having lunch at 'Githukus' you are officially old 😂

To all Muslim brothers and sisters.

Enjoy

Best of luck to all the candidates. God Bless.

If you were caned by Mr. SPM Kyungu, consider yourself old! lol ;)

We need to bring Parkie to its former self.

The launch of the school Alumin association last saturday