Davji Bhimji Atellah
Kenyan clinical pharmacist Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah has traded dispensary counters for picket lines and policy tables, channeling frontline frustrations into systemic reform. Elected Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union in 2021, he inherited a workforce bruised by pandemic duty and perennial arrears; within months he orchestrated nationwide walk-outs that forced county governments to clear salary backlogs, hire more than 3,000 intern doctors and create a transparent promotion framework. His negotiating style, data-rich briefs capped with street-level pressure, has since secured a multiyear collective-bargaining roadmap and restored medical-insurance cover for thousands of practitioners.
Atellah couples activism with scholarship, pursuing master’s degrees in Clinical Pharmacology at Moi University and Medical Law & Ethics at the University of Edinburgh to, as he says, “argue cases with evidence, not only megaphones.” He has carried that ethos to the World Health Assembly, urging debt relief and larger primary-health budgets for low- and middle-income nations. Next on his docket are minimum staffing ratios enshrined in law and a national welfare fund to shield clinicians from financial ruin during strikes. By framing worker welfare as the bedrock of patient safety, Atellah is redefining how Kenya and the region, invests in those who keep it healthy.