What happens when the President\u2019s temperature suddenly soars in the dead of night or is attacked by bugs in the middle of an important function?<\/p>\n
When it is your duty to\u00a0keep\u00a0your finger on the pulse of a\u00a0President, your troubles are more than just being a doctor.For the lucky few, life can be quite intricate. They are on call when the\u00a0President\u00a0gets something as mild as a cold.<\/p>\n
They run with medical instruments in their bags, never knowing when the call will come.Doctors who have treated Kenya\u2019s\u00a0presidents\u00a0have captivating anecdotes. When the\u00a0President\u00a0complains of a rumbling stomach, his doctor has to put everything on hold and do a full body check that sometimes stretches for hours.<\/p>\n
Even when the\u00a0President\u00a0has not shown any signs of illness, their personal physicians have to make regular visits to State House to ascertain that they are in good form.\u201cBeing the\u00a0President\u2019s\u00a0doctor is more than a job. It is a patriotic duty. One wrong move could throw the country into panic.<\/p>\n
If something was to go wrong as you are treating him, what would people think? The health of the\u00a0President\u00a0is the health of the nation,\u201d says Dan Gikonyo, who was former Mwai Kibaki\u2019s doctor during his 10-year\u00a0presidency.Former\u00a0President\u00a0Daniel Moi\u2019s personal physician for more than four decades, David Silverstein, revealed that being the Head of State\u2019s doctor involves many other things, including travelling with him when he is on official duty and being on standby in case of an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI travelled the world with mzee, and among my duties was to ensure we were not eating exotic animals such as cats, snake, dogs or drinking buffalo milk while we were in China,\u201d he jokingly said during Moi\u2019s funeral three weeks ago, solidifying the fact that theirs was a unique friendship.He chronicled the many other trips they took together, including when Moi was going for treatment in Israel.<\/p>\n
Security checks<\/strong><\/p>\n Doctors who treat the\u00a0President\u00a0are often subjected to serious security scrutiny and must be approved by the Head of State himself. Jomo Kenyatta\u2019s personal doctor, Njoroge Mungai was his cousin. They were so close that Kenyatta would share political secrets with him.<\/p>\n Dr Gikonyo admits that he had met Kibaki long before he vied for the\u00a0presidency, and they had formed a bond that when he later asked him to become his personal physician, he felt privileged. \u201cA\u00a0President\u00a0is likely to choose a doctor he has interacted with and developed trust in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Dr Silverstein projected an image of a friendship that grew and got stronger as he and Moi continued to interact. \u201cOur relationship as doctor and patient warmed over 42 years with deepening trust, mutual respect and growing friendship,\u201d he said in his eulogy.So deep was their friendship that when his son was circumcised eight days after his birth as per Jewish traditions, Moi was there to hold him. Moi attended his wedding and they shared many moments together.<\/p>\n Amidst the friendship and the many hours physicians and\u00a0presidents\u00a0spend together, Gikonyo says there are many misconceptions about doctors who treat\u00a0Presidents\u00a0in Kenya.<\/p>\n Doctor\u2019s fee<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPeople imagine that when you are treating a\u00a0President, you make a lot of money and that you can get rich overnight. That is a big lie. The\u00a0President\u00a0does not pay for his medical care from his pocket. It is paid by the State and you cannot overcharge him just because he is the\u00a0President,\u201d he says.\u201cIt is an honor for the\u00a0President\u00a0to trust you and want you to be their personal doctor because you get to know them at a deeper level, but it terms of monetary gain, it is not lucrative,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In other countries such as the US, doctors go as far as drawing the meal plan and watching as the\u00a0Presidents\u00a0eat. Dr Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, admitted that they went to the extreme to ensure US\u00a0President\u00a0Donald Trump maintained a healthy diet by sneaking cauliflower in his mashed potatoes, and making ice-cream less accessible to him.<\/p>\n There are some\u00a0presidents\u2019 doctors who have landed in trouble by going against expectations. Dr Vejay Ramlakan\u00a0who headed the medical team that treated South Africa\u2019s former\u00a0president\u00a0Nelson Mandela was embroiled in a battle with the former\u00a0president\u2019s\u00a0family after he published a book that chronicled Mandela\u2019s health before he died in 2013.Even with the extra care and stress that the job can sometimes bring, Gikonyo says that it raises their profiles among patients, and there are some who believe they are the best doctors simply because they treat\u00a0presidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What happens when the President\u2019s temperature suddenly soars in the dead of night or is attacked by bugs in the middle of an important function? When it is your duty to\u00a0keep\u00a0your finger on the pulse of a\u00a0President, your troubles are more than just being a doctor.For the lucky few, life can be quite intricate. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[1880,1114,1879,1260,1653],"class_list":["post-3477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-dan-gikonyo","tag-daniel-moi","tag-david-silverstein","tag-mwai-kibaki","tag-state-house"],"yoast_head":"\n