Your health is our primary concern


The health clinic in rural Ongino is located at the end of a dirt road, about 7 km from the town of Kumi. The clinic is a snapshot of the challenges Africa faces, 60 percent of Africans live without electricity, and while the continent bears a quarter of the global burden of disease, health care expenditures are only 1 percent of the total in the world, according to a recent report from McKinsey. But the prognosis is improving. Governments in the region are investing in healthcare infrastructure and reforms. It is not an easy solution. Experience has shown that what works in American hospitals does not work in Africa. At least 40 percent of hospital equipment in Africa is out of service due to a lack of spare parts and training for health professionals. This compares to just 1 percent of equipment in high-income countries.
Dr. Raymond Malinga says new African hospitals are using natural cross ventilation, remote wards and an effective triage system to reduce the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. He says simple measures, such as having a hand-washing station up to 20 meters away in the hospital, help prevent hospital infections. In Kumi Hospital, things started to change in 2003, when a trained midwife from the Netherlands arrived with a pocket-sized ultrasound machine called V-scan. Her visit was part of an investigation into innovations that could accelerate the government's efforts to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in Africa.

Newborn and maternal health is the main health problem in Africa, before malaria or AIDS

Dr. Raymond Joseph Malinga, Medical Director Kumi Hospital

Kumi Hospital

Kumi Hospital is located in Eastern Uganda, between Mbale and Soroti, 7 km east of Kumi Town in the Ongino Sub-County. It was originally founded as a leper colony in 1929 by Church Missionary Society. In 1930 Dr. C.A. Wiggins of the CMS opened the hospital in Kumi Ongino for the treatment of children with leprosy.
Over the years, the hospital cared for the many leprosy patients and brought hope back to treatment and later rehabilitation through the leprosy program. When patients were brought to Kumi, the leprosy villages surrounding the hospital grew. In his article, Dr. N.D. Fraser at the hospital in Kumi at the time said: 'The first impression was a well-groomed area, both at the Kumi school and at the Ongino Leprosarium. The forest had been cleared, playing fields and gardens had been laid out and large areas of land had been cultivated. Flowering shrubs brought color to the landscape, and a thriving honey-producing industry attracted much interest.

Civil War

Between the years 1986 - 1992, the Teso Region was economically and socially devastated by civil war as a result of rebellion and the dreaded cattle rustling by a hostile neighbouring nomadic tribe. Cattle keeping was the main economic substrate of this area. The Hospital was not spared either. The infrastructure, water pumping and carrying systems, buildings and Hospital equipment was looted or vandalized. The social and moral fabric of the communities collapsed and the Hospital lay in a sorry state.

Considering that over 38% of the population lives below the poverty line (1US$/day), health could be one of those factors that are actually driving people into poverty. The government spends only 7.2% of the total budget on health, despite making a commitment to spend 15% of its total budget. With the health sector running at half the expected budget, it will be next to impossible to talk about quality health care in Uganda.

General Hospital

Since 1997, the Hospital infrastructure was rehabilitated and upgraded and the Hospital transformed into a General Hospital albeit carrying the scars and legacy of those dark days.

Today Kumi Hospital is a 300-bed Hospital providing the following services among others:
- Referral Hospital for TB/Leprosy for Eastern Region;
- General Hospital services including in-patient Services;
- Reconstructive and Rehabilitative services for the physically disabled;
- Fabrication and fitting of artificial limbs;
- Provision of Orthopedic appliances/footwear;
- Maternal and Child Health services; Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR);
- Primary Health Care activities and Outreaches;
- VCT and PMTCT services including ART;
- AMREF Flying Doctor service 

Get in Touch

  • Telephone (MD’s Office):
    +256 (0)393 194 274
  • Telephone (OPD):
    +256 (0)393 194 107
  • Email:
    info@kumihospital.org
  • Email:
    kumihospital@gmail.com
  • Address:
    Airstrip Kumi Ongino
    East Uganda - East Africa
    Post Office (P.O.) Box 9, Kumi