Our History
From a port-town dispensary to a national teaching and referral hospital
JOOTRH traces its roots to the early 1900s, when the port town of Kisumu was a bustling hub for the railway and lake transport that fuelled colonial East Africa. A modest health facility was established to serve the railway workers, dock labourers and their families.
Over the decades, the facility expanded in step with the region: from a dispensary to a district hospital, then a provincial referral centre. In 2016, the hospital was renamed Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching & Referral Hospital in honour of Kenya's first Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, recognising its role as a teaching and referral facility for the Western Kenya region.
Today, JOOTRH stands as a Level 6A National Teaching and Referral Hospital — a teaching partner for medical and nursing students, a research centre, and the final referral point for more than 10 counties. With the ongoing Ksh 4.9 billion transformation into a 2,000-bed "Medicity", the hospital is building the infrastructure of the future: new theatres, ICUs, oncology and radiology wings, and digital health systems to match.