Her impressive professional heists notwithstanding, you wonder if Dr Jacqueline Kitulu’s laugh will one day feature on her tombstone. It should. For it is prominent and relentless and it warms everything around her.
Her hat bears many feathers; current president-elect of World Medical Association, first female president of the Kenya Medical Association and the first female chair of the association, chair of Kenya Medical Women’s Association, first deputy governor of Kenya Red Cross Society.
She sits and has sat on a plethora of boards; Mater Misericordiae Hospital, the Kenya Coordinating Mechanism for Global Funds and the Kenya Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, Emergency Plus Medical Services, Safaricom Health Advisory Board, NHIF, Kenya Healthcare Federation…the list goes on and on. The good doctor doesn’t have a resume, she has a roadmap of medical leadership.
You could say Dr Jacqueline Kitulu is not just transforming the medical profession, she’s healing with laughter and showing that serious work doesn’t mean a serious face.
What’s the greatest lesson medicine has taught you in the 26 years of practice?
Humility. Having a patient before you is a whole new scenario of medicine. You may have read all the theory in medicine practice but you can't always put it together to get that patient better. And it is not from lack of technical knowledge but how do you join the dots to help that patient to move to the next level? It is always a sobering reminder that someone has put his or her life in your hands, and trusts you to make them better but you can get it wrong and get them in a worse state.
It must come with the God complex.
Yes, it can easily get to that. But I look at it differently. Each day makes me believe more in God because of how things piece together for the body to heal.
It is amazing how an intervention can move a patient from one point to another and how sometimes despite the best interventions, a patient still dies. I never know which way it will go.
World Medical Association President Dr. Jacqueline Kitulu during an interview at the Palacina Hotel in Nairobi on January 20, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
Just before Christmas, one of my colleagues saw this 19-year-old girl who had pneumonia. Usually, young people respond to treatment pretty well so recovery is expected. But this girl died after five days.
We were traumatised. We asked ourselves questions; what did we miss? We retraced our steps, but we didn’t miss anything. We did everything we needed to do, even more, but she still she died.
Would you choose to be a doctor all over again?
Yes. I have wanted to be a doctor since I was a child. When I was young, one of my uncles, who was my mentor, was hospitalised, and I saw how doctors made him well again. I was fascinated by the healing process.
Is there anything in your youth you wish to bring back to your life now?
[Pause] I enjoy each phase of my life. Would I want to go back to my 20s with little children? Hell no. [Laughs loudly]. That was for that phase. We deal with each phase as it comes.
I like the energy of youth though. I’ve always been a busybody, doing a million things. I am still energetic, so I can’t think of anything in my youth I would like today.
What's remarkable about being in your 50s, apart from the usual, you know, being comfortable in your skin?
I think I am my most authentic self now. I've got things I'm struggling with, but it's okay. There are people also struggling with a million other things.
When you're young, you struggle with that being your authentic self. In my 50s I've found my passion and my purpose, and I'm enjoying it. There are no rehearsals. This is it. Just living and doing what it is.
What's that purpose?
Service to humanity. And for me, it's in the health field.
What kind of childhood did you have?
I grew up in South C, Nairobi. My dad is a computer scientist - studied it in the 1960s. He was part of the airlift guys who went to the US for further studies. He went to Boston and came back. He's now 80.
My mom was a secretary but also a businesswoman. I get my OCD[obsessive-compulsive disorder] from her because she is super organised.
When I was getting married, she gave me a file with my birth certificate, baby immunization card, report cards, all the documents you can think about.
She was also a juggler of a million things; selling clothes, and shoes, going to Thailand, buying things, coming, selling them. I grew up knowing you could do anything and everything. There's no restriction on what you can do.
We were five siblings, but one of my sisters died two years ago. My two brothers were born when I was finishing high school. I lived with my grandma for a while as well. There was always another stabilising factor in the background.
How old are your children?
My oldest son is 25, and the youngest just turned 22.
How has the experience of motherhood been for you? Did you enjoy it or have you been humbled by it?
I was like my mother, everywhere. I have been a busybody mom. When my youngest was six I remember my friends coming home and him telling my friends, “You know, my mom is very busy. She only comes home at night.” [Laughs] Oh my goodness. When I looked at it now he wasn’t accusing me. It was factual.
He knows mom is doing things but that was also the point when I realised I should involve them in the things I do. So when I was at KMA, I would take them to my annual conferences or for a meeting so that they know what mom does and why she comes home at night.
After seeing what I did, my youngest, the one who reported me to my friends, said he would never be a doctor, that it was too hard. He’s doing architecture and is suffering from sleepless nights. I usually jokingly ask him, “I thought you ran away from the hard stuff?”[Laughs]
Look, if you define the best mom as one who is constantly there with their children, I wouldn’t fit the category because I am the mom who is traveling and whatever. But my husband has been very supportive.
You have a magic wand. What's the one thing you would change.
My sister died suddenly. If that could be changed, I would. I wish she was around. I’d tell her ' Guess who is interviewing me?' She would collapse. Such things would jazz her. [Chuckles].
World Medical Association President Dr. Jacqueline Kitulu poses for a photo at Palacina Hotel, Nairobi on January 20, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
As a doctor, you must interact with death more frequently than most people. Did your sister’sdeath shift your perspective of life, of mortality?
Yes. It cemented what we all know; that we have one life, tomorrow is not assured, live your life. Don’t wait to do something tomorrow, or be someone tomorrow, do it now. Who knows, you might not wake up tomorrow. No rehearsals. There is no special play, this is the only play.
What are you scared to do at this stage of your life?
Nothing much. I was 40 when I started running because I was trying to lose weight, which I did. Then it came back. There's also a certain freedom that comes with running.
Anyway, I did seven half marathons and later a full marathon when I was 42 to mark my turning 42. I trained for it while doing many other things, including an MBA in healthcare management at Strathmore University.
It was hectic because the supervisors at Strathmore are ruthless, they don't give you leeway, no excuses. They simply don't do mediocrity.
I did the marathon and it was very tough. I almost crawled past the finish line. My lesson since that day is that there is nothing impossible, nothing to fear. Just do it scared and fearful. Just do it.
What validates you the most?
I'm not going to say motherhood,I've told you, I'm not a good mom and I’m not a bad mom. And you see, that's the stereotypes that we are set into.
Society makes you feel like you're not a good mom because you aren’t there for your children all the time. You could be there full time but you aren’t a good mom.
What validates me is the work I’m doing in the medical industry. I sit in places where I can influence changes to our health sector, and I do that.
I was listening to the Bible when I was driving this morning. It was talking about what God has sent us here to do. For me, it’s serving humanity on all these boards that I sit on, which I do mostly pro bono.
