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Making The Cut: The Autobiography of Kenya’s First Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon by Peter Amollo Odhiambo
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“Indeed, it was a bullet! The patient remembered that he had been shot by colonial forces at the start of the MAU MAU war in 1952. He had survived the shot and literally forgot about it until the present moment, 36 years later, when I asked if he had ever been shot in the past. The patient was of course, after all, the freedom fighter par excellence, Waruhiu Itote, better known as ‘General China.'”
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In this unflinching memoir, Kenya’s first thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon, Prof. Peter Amollo Odhiambo, reflects on a life shaped by bold decisions, quiet sacrifices, and a relentless drive to serve.
As a young man, he left home on a scholarship to study in India, joining elite medical institutions at a time when few Africans had such access. Though he had every opportunity to remain abroad, he chose instead to return and help shape Kenya’s medical future. This decision would soon lead him to a pivotal moment early in his career, when he performed a delicate surgery to remove a colonial bullet from the chest of Mau Mau freedom fighter General China.
Prof. Odhiambo would go on to train generations of doctors at the University of Nairobi, where his influence can still be felt in hospitals across the country. But his impact reached far beyond the classroom or the theatre. In the 1990s and 2000s, Prof. Odhiambo became a national advocate for tobacco control, confronting powerful multinationals and helping draft legislation that still protects Kenyans from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke.
Told in his own words, ‘Making the Cut’ is more than a record of medical firsts. It is a personal and historical journey through post-independence Kenya, seen through the eyes of a man who has never stopped believing in excellence, justice, and the power of public service.
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