Swarup Mishra made waves in the 2017 general election when he was elected as Kesses Member of Parliament (MP) despite being a ‘outsider’.
Born in Orissa, India in 1965, Mishra and his wife Dr Pallavi Mishra moved to Kenya in 1997 and settled in Eldoret with the aim of finding greener pastures.
Mishra stated in a previous interview that they landed in Kenya with $500, which was equivalent to around Ksh 30,000 at the time.
“As we are talking now our total investment in terms of the number of hospitals and the services we offer is around 100 million dollars which is around Sh10 billion,” he said in a past interview.
After arriving in Eldoret, his wife was the first to find work, and he was occasionally called to conduct surgery in towns nearby, such as Kabarnet and Iten.
Mishra eventually became a lecturer at Moi University School of Medicine, where he spent 16 years teaching reproductive health.
The Mishra family founded the first Mediheal hospital in 2006 using their combined resources and loans.
The first hospital opened in Eldoret, on the Eldoret-Nakuru route.
The hospital specialized in reproductive health issues, such as fertility.
It was the first to execute a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (kidney transplant with a specialized camera) in East Africa.
The popularity of the Eldoret facility inspired the pair to create additional locations in Nakuru and Nairobi.
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The Mishras also expanded internationally, establishing branches in Ethiopia and Rwanda.
As of 2017, the Mishras had amassed more than $100 million in wealth through these medical institutions.
It is believed that the value has doubled as of December 2023.
Mishra became well-known in Uasin Gishu County after using the revenues from his investments to help the local population.
His charitable acts earned him the appellation ‘Kiprop arap Chelule’ in order to fit in with the Kalenjin nation and be praised as a generous man.
“Kiprop means born during the rain while Chelule means from outside baptized into inside,” Mishra said.
In 2017, he made his political debut by running for the Kesses parliamentary seat, which he won on a Jubilee Party ticket.
Mishra received 23,314 votes, while his closest opponent, Isaac Terer, the former Uasin Gishu County Assembly Speaker, received 5,681 votes.
In the 2022 general election, Mishra ran as an independent candidate but was defeated by Julius Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
