Baraka Kerich
Kenyan finance strategist Baraka Kerich keeps the balance sheet behind the country’s best-known pediatric hospital as healthy as the children it treats. Appointed chief finance officer of Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in 2021, he inherited tight margins and rising charity-care demands; within two years he rolled out activity-based costing, digitized billing across 16 satellite clinics, and negotiated supply-chain contracts that shaved double-digit percentages off consumable costs. Those savings allowed Gertrude’s to open two new outpatient centers, expand its cancer unit, and boost the hospital’s indigent-care fund by 40 percent, moves that have put specialized treatment within reach of thousands of families previously forced to travel abroad or go without.
Kerich’s mandate reaches beyond spreadsheets. He chairs the hospital’s ESG task force, channeling solar-energy savings into neonatal-ICU upgrades, and mentors young accountants through the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, insisting that “purpose is the best risk hedge.”
Next on his ledger: a blended-finance model to underwrite bone-marrow transplants and an AI-driven pricing engine that will align fees with patients’ insurance limits in real time. By matching fiscal rigor with social mission, Kerich is positioning Gertrude’s as a blueprint for sustainable, high-quality pediatric care across East Africa.