President Moi's Personal Physician

 

My review of Heartbeat – An American Cardiologist in Kenya by David Silverstein, available from Amazon, 2023.

 David Silverstein was, as the title confirms, a cardiologist who pitched up in Kenya in the early seventies.  This book is his memoir starting with his childhood, education, medical school, a stint in Vietnam and then Kenya. He practiced in Nairobi and as the only heart specialist in the nation at the time attracted the rich and powerful who needed his services.

The book opens in the hospital emergency wards following the bombing of the U.S. embassy in 1998. That sets the tone for the story to come. The memoir is replete with brief case studies of individuals who required his medical services and a narrative of how more broadly viewed medical services in Kenya improved during the course of the past forty years.  (In fact, there was more medical recitation than I enjoyed, but those who are well versed in medicine will undoubtedly appreciate these sections.)

I did value Silverstein’s observations about Kenya’s political scene and its political elite. Many folks are mentioned but the two most prominent are President Daniel arap Moi and Attorney General Charles Njonjo.  Silverstein became doctor to both of them.  He saw them regularly and became friends with each. Since he was not involved with Kenyan politics, they had no agenda with him and his with them was medical, personal and supportive. Silverstein’s observations about the human side of the men rings true.

Silverstien portrayed Moi as a carefully spoken man who thought matters through before acting. Indeed, his observations of Moi add a dimension to the understanding of this complex leader.  Especially poignant was Silverstein’s care for Moi after he retired from the presidency and on into his last years.

 Anecdotes abound, for example, as part of the presidential entourage, Silverstien accompanied Moi on foreign trips. One such foray was into Iran, where Silverstein’s American citizenship and Jewish ethnicity, almost proved disastrous but instead turned into a good story.

Throughout the book, as is true with all memoirs, we learn about the author – what makes him tic, family issues, including two different sets of sons, and finally a wife to sustain him.  All in all, Heartbeat is an entertaining read, especially for those who knew Kenya from the seventies forward.