Ian Clarke (physician)
Ian Clarke is a physician, missionary, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and politician in Uganda. From 2011 to 2016, he was mayor of Makindye Division, one of the five administrative units of the Kampala Capital City Authority.
Early life and education
Clarke was born in South Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1952 to Thomas and Jean Clarke. He studied human medicine at Queen's University Belfast, graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and a Bachelor of Obstetrics, as is customary in Irish medical schools. In 1987, he obtained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He followed up in 1994 with a Master of Science in Public Health, also from LSTM.Moved to Uganda
Clarke read about the AIDS epidemic in Uganda and decided to come see for himself. He was taken to Kiwoko Village in present-day Nakaseke District in the Luweero Triangle. He arrived in 1987, at the tail end of the Ugandan Bush War, which he had been unaware of until he arrived. He subsequently returned with his family under the auspices of the Church Mission Society to work in Kiwoko. Clarke initially treated his patients under a tree before going on to establish Kiwoko Hospital which, as of March 2015, maintained a nurses training school, a laboratory technician training school, a large community health programme, a neonatal ICU, and full general hospital facilities.Clarke later moved to Kampala, setting up his first clinic within the Kampala Pentecostal Church Building on Buganda Road in Central Kampala. He subsequently opened International Hospital Kampala in Old Kampala where Uganda's first open-heart surgery was carried out. IHK subsequently grew and moved to Namuwongo, another Kampala suburb. The 110-bed facility is the only ISO certified hospital in Uganda. The hospital has facilities including specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and plastic surgery.