CKN News

African Voices will this weekend continue its profiling of Africans who have made a mark in different fields of endeavour by featuring one of the continent’s most respected paediatric surgeons, Dr. Betty Gikonyo,.

The 30-minute magazine programme which runs on CNN International is sponsored by national telecommunications operator, Globacom.

Dr. Gikonyo is one of Kenya’s leading pediatric heart surgeons and founder of the Karen Hospital in Nairobi. She has established an enviable reputation for herself both for her medical work and for what she does outside medicine. In the hospital, she treats children with heart ailments, while outside she raises funds for those in need of life-saving heart procedures.

She is a consultant Paediatric Cardiologist, a co-founder of Heart to Heart Foundation and Chief Executive of The Karen Hospital.

Dr Gikonyo obtained a bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery and a Masters Degree in Paediatrics from the University of Nairobi in 1975 as well as a post graduate sub specialization in Paediatric Cardiology from University of Minnesota in the USA.

She is a member of Kenya Medical Association, Kenya Cardiac Society, Kenya Peadiatric Association, and Kenya Medical Women Association.

She is also a council member of the University of Nairobi, Chairperson of Nairobi Health Management Board and Chair of the University of Nairobi Alumni Association.

This week on African Voices, CNN’s Janet Mbuga talks with Dr. Gikonyo about the events in her life that shaped her career and her mission to provide necessary and affordable healthcare for children with heart disease.

The programme will be broadcast at 8.30 a.m. on Friday, with  repeat editions at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, 3.30 a.m., 9:00 a.m and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. There will be further repeats on Monday at  2:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 5:30 p.m. and on Tuesday at 5:30 a.m.

After about five hours of what could be described as the deadliest attack by the extremist Boko Haram sect on Maiduguri, soldiers, supported by the die-hard civilian-JTF members, are on the hot pursuit of some of the insurgents, witnesses and police authorities have said.

Witnesses said the aerial bombing had caused the Boko Haram insurgents some degree of casualty.

It was also said, but not yet confirmed by security authorities, that the bombing may have killed even members of the Civilian-JTF who trooped into the firing area to arrest the Boko Haram terrorists.