Dr Dan and Betty Gikonyo were classmates at the university. In his autobiography, which he recently launched, Dr Gikonyo reflects on the longevity of his marriage and his thriving family business, which he believes has blossomed due to a well-planned succession strategy.
In the 1970s, when medical students used to be pampered to study, taking three-course meals and having their clothes dry-cleaned on the government’s bill, a group of bright minds coalesced at the University of Nairobi.
They were studying medicine and were the first crop of students to stay in primary school for seven years due to a curriculum adjustment. Two of the learners in that class have been married for 50 years. They are Dr Dan Gikonyo and his wife, Betty, the doctors behind the Karen Hospital.
Others in that class were psychiatrists Frank Njenga and David Ndetei. There was also the famed gynaecologist Jean Kagia, who died earlier this year. Prof Zipporah Ngumi, Dr Grace Kitonyi, Dr Lorna Sangale, and Dr Hosea Waweru were among the others in that class.
That famous UoN class was in focus on Wednesday evening when Dr Gikonyo launched his autobiography, Doctor at Heart, in Nairobi. Some of the alumni were in attendance and the fact that Dr Gikonyo married from his class was, inevitably, a point of discussion.
“Most of you don’t know; we were classmates with Dr Dan Gikonyo, and that’s where he set his eyes upon me,” Betty told the gathering, causing uproarious laughter.
“I did not set my eyes upon him. He was from Kagumo (High School), but I was from the Alliance Girls High School,” she says.
When he got a chance to further excite the crowd on the topic, Dr Njenga, the man behind the Chiromo Hospital Group, “confirmed” that Betty was not at first moved by Dr Gikonyo, and that it was the latter’s guitar-playing skills at the Christian Union that came to his rescue.
“It’s a story I will tell another day, but it is the guitar,” Dr Njenga told an amused gathering.
Dr Betty Gikonyo said the 50 years have been a period of many achievements. “We have celebrated together a multi-dimensional relationship,” she said. “Indeed, this year, we are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. Therefore, I’ve lived with Dan longer than he lived with his parents.”
Dr Gikonyo, in his new book, describes how smitten he was when he first saw Betty. “There was this pretty, slim, young girl in my class and a member of the Christian Union. She was born at Kiamabara in Karatina, Nyeri, the same year I was born. Her name was Betty Muthoni Mwangi. My eyes could never stop looking at her,” he writes. “She was the type of girl I had always dreamt of. She had a rare combination of beauty, intelligence, and charisma, all of which rarely come in one package.”
Regarding the ‘aha’ moment in their relationship, Dr Gikonyo writes of an incident that made him want to settle down with her.
Dr Dan Gikonyo during the launch of his book titled Doctor at heart at Sarit Center, Nairobi on September 25, 2024. Lucy Wanjiru | Nation
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation
“It was one Saturday afternoon when we went out for coffee at the Mocha Coffee Shop at the upper end of Koinange Street. We sat there on the side-street table watching the smooth traffic of the city. The coffee and the biscuits were sweet, made even sweeter by the company. As we settled the bill, I remarked, ‘This is a very nice coffee place. I would like to come back again.’ It is then that Betty remarked, ‘I agree; it is a very nice coffee shop. I would like to own it.’ Here I was, saying I wanted to enjoy having coffee again at the shop, and here was a girl telling me we should own it. I made up my mind. This is the girl for my life,” he writes.
In an interview with The Standard two years ago, Dr Gikonyo discussed the advantage of marrying from one’s line of speciality.
“I tell young people to marry people in the same profession. If you have both interests, planning becomes easier. If my wife was not a doctor, I am not sure we would be together today because she, for instance, understands that I can get a call and leave at any time of day or night,” he said.
Apart from starting a family after meeting in class, the Gikonyos have another strand in their story — that of running a business as a couple.
They conceptualised the Karen Hospital after a stint in the US where they handled children with heart problems. Construction of the hospital began in 2003. Its first CEO was Dr Betty Gikonyo, who left the post to be the chairperson as the couple’s only daughter, Juliet, took the CEO’s role.
Their firstborn, Dr Anthony Kibuka Gikonyo, is the clinical director at the hospital. He is a cardiology specialist. Their lastborn, Eric Mwangi (Juliet is the middle child), is the records keeper at the facility.
This makes the Karen Hospital a family business, and Dr Gikonyo discusses in his book what this portends for the facility.
“In Kenya, family-owned businesses account for 60 percent of the total employment. Some of them generate revenue of over Sh10 billion per year. They also cut across different sectors, including agriculture, media, banking, retail, construction, and real estate,” he says. “However, in some cases, family businesses have not done so well. To survive, family enterprises need a well-planned succession strategy, aware that succession is a process rather than an event.”
Juliet, the CEO, has previously admitted that it is not always rosy to be at the corner office of a family business. In a 2022 interview with comedian Churchill, she said the delicate balance between family relations and business is a tightrope.
“One of the things people never really understand in family business is the intricacies between relationships in a family and then running a business at the same time,” she said.
“We share the same mindset in many areas, but there are others where you can see there is a bit of a tussle between my opinion, and sometimes I have to remember that I, as the CEO, carry both the directors’ and the founders’ wishes but also the shareholders’ wishes. So, I have to find the middle ground,” she added.
Dr Dan Gikonyo during the launch of his book titled Doctor at heart at Sarit Center, Nairobi on September 25, 2024.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation
“In any given succession, the founding generation is nearly always different from the incoming one. First and foremost, the motivations of the founders are often different from those of the offspring. The founders’ motivation is usually based on the mindset of ‘escaping from poverty’. But the new generation, having been brought up in adequacy and sufficiency, may not draw its motivation from similar drivers. The founders are usually very authoritarian. They have succeeded by defying all odds. This includes going against the grain of ordinary human thinking. They could not trust the world around them, and their success story was often based on doing things differently from the norm,” he writes.
“On their part, the takeover generation may be more interested in doing things ‘the way they are normally done’, and a conflict of interest may arise during the handover process. Therefore, there is a need for the family to plan together to reach an understanding; a sort of middle ground to facilitate a smooth continuity of the family investment,” adds Dr Gikonyo.
To handle the friction, he writes that the family meets every Saturday. “The regular family meetings are quite healthy in any given business environment because they help people related by blood to share their ideas and experiences, learning to differ with each other’s opinions without bitterness. With such an arrangement, Betty and I believe we can slowly slide out of the scene, leaving the Karen Hospital in the safe hands of a new generation of managers,” writes Dr Gikonyo.
In an interview with the Business Daily in 2021, Juliet said the parents raised them in an environment where they were “very clear about morals and values.”
Talking with the Lifestyle before the launch, Dr Gikonyo said he put out his book because he thought he had a story to share with the world.
“A biography is something you write when you think you have something to tell the people. So, why not? Five years ago, the ideas were just crystallising, but now it’s quite clear what I’d like to say,” he said.
He gave seven reasons why he had to put out the book now, and one of them is the value of honesty.
“I have a strong thread in this book about being honest—both in yourself and even in business. Because there’s enough money in honest work, and you don’t have to be dishonest to make huge profits.”
Another reason is family. “I want to stress to anybody reading this book that family is very important. You must know your family, not just your wife and children, but please tell us about your father, your grandfather, and your great-grandfather. Let us know your heritage and the values those people have put into you. Don’t be like the people I ask about their forefathers and start telling me about Abraham and Jacob,” he said with a chuckle.
“My class of 1970 (the year they joined UoN) was special in many ways because, if you remember, that is the class that, in 1963, did the primary school exam after seven years. Before 1963, it was eight years,” he said. “That class did not have just Kenyans. At that time, there used to be a lot of students from other countries. We had a Nigerian, we had somebody from Botswana, et cetera.”
Looking at a photo of some of the alumni from that class that is in his book, Dr Gikonyo declared that his wife, Betty, “is the most famous of them all.”
Venturing into an enterprise like the Karen Hospital is sure to have been a daunting task. So, did the couple ever have moments of regret? Dr Gikonyo said never.
“Karen Hospital has been a dream. You know, the good thing about Karen Hospital, is that we didn’t put it up to make money. So, you get satisfaction from just working there and doing it. We don’t make a lot of money,” he replied.
Medical student in the 70s
We also delved into the recent death by suicide of a medical intern, which was blamed on working for long hours under pressure. Dr Gikonyo believes that the level of care given to trainee doctors in his day is not the same as it is today.
“At our time in the 70s, we had a three-course lunch. You start with soup, then your main meal, then your dessert for lunch and dinner; not counting the 10 o’clock tea with bread and four o’clock tea. In fact, in university those days, on Friday evening, you’d collect your dirty shirts and socks and things that you have used during the week, put them in a paper bag, and leave them in your room.
Dr Dan Gikonyo's book titled Doctor at heart.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation
The janitors would come, pick them up, take them to be dry-cleaned, and return them on Monday. That level of care given by the State made us what we are today. I’m not quite sure we’d be where we are today if we didn’t get all those things for free. There is no way. My father had trouble paying my school fees in high school. There is no way he could have paid for me in university,” he said.
In an apparent call to medical school teachers, he added: “The sad thing is that for us, we know that. And any of my age group who are in positions of responsibility know that. Why can’t we do it for our children?”
We also asked Dr Gikonyo to give an analysis of the heart condition of the average Kenyan. His opinion is that Kenyans are increasingly teasing the Grim Reaper.
“We are leading ourselves to early death. Lifestyle has changed so dramatically in the last 50 years that our bodies cannot survive with the new lifestyles,” said Dr Gikonyo.
Repeatedly, Dr Gikonyo, who has a slender frame, (and the ability to crack a joke when you least expect it), has preached against reckless eating and lifestyle habits such as smoking and sedentary living that cause problems.
“We have changed our diet, we have changed the way we exercise, we have changed what we eat and how much we eat, how much cigarettes we are smoking, we don’t walk anymore. All those are what’s causing the new disease of the heart; the one that causes heart attacks,” he said.
“When I was a medical student between 1970 and 1980 at the most famous hospital called Kenyatta National Hospital, I saw only two patients with a heart attack. Now, at the Karen Hospital, we are seeing two per day. The human Kenyan national genetics cannot change that rapidly in those 50 years. So, the only thing that has changed is lifestyle,” he added.
