Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) has announced that it performed its first ever Cochlear Implant Surgery on Wednesday in a move that has excited medics across Kenya.

MTRH says the successful operation means the facility is the first public hospital to conduct the specialist surgery in Kenya as well as in the entire East and Central Africa region.

The landmark surgery was done on a young woman who had been diagnosed with post-lingual sensorineurial hearing loss and the delicate surgical procedure took two hours.

The medical team included Dr Menach Owen, an Otolaryngologist based at MTRH and Professor Badr Eldin Mostafa from Ain Shams University in Egypt.


They were aided by Dr Rotich Gerald, Scrub Nurses Francis Koskei and Fridah Kotut, and Audiologist Angela Kiragu alongside anesthesits Dr Kimani Mbugua, Dr Solomon Mwau and Henry Kemei.

Cochlear implant surgery aids persons with severe hearing loss to regain their hearing ability and is usually done under general anaesthesia, whereby a small incision is made behind the ear to access the Cochlear.


This surgery can be performed on pre-lingual (children below three years who are yet to develop hearing and speech and those who are post-lingual but have lost their hearing.

Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is a national referral hospital situated along Nandi Road in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.