The Ambassador

Dr. KarauAmbassador Dr. Stephen Ndungu Karau “MBS” “OGW” COL (RTD) MBChB (NBI) D Av Med (LONDON) MPH (LEEDS)
Ambassador Designate Kenya Mission To UN & other International Organizations in Switzerland

Ambassador Dr. Stephen Ndung’u Karau graduated with MB CHB in 1977 from the University of Nairobi. He joined the Kenya Air Force in 1978 soon after medical internship in Machakos Provincial General Hospital. This led to a rewarding and exciting professional career in the Military spanning over 24 years.
In the course of military service, he pursued further Post Graduate Training at the London Royal College of Physicians who awarded him a Post Graduate Diploma in Aviation Medicine in 1982. Later in 1987 he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Public Health by the University of Leeds in the UK. In the Military he rose from a Junior Doctor (Captain) to a Senior Consultant (Colonel) in Aviation Medicine and Public Health where he distinguished himself in clinical work, teaching and in HIV work.

He retired voluntarily from the Military in October 2002 after heading the Air Force Medical Department for 6 years.

The next four years 2003-2006 proved to be another very rewarding experience after he joined the US/KEMRI family. He did a tour with the prestigious US Government Centre for Disease Control and (CDC) Prevention also in Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). He was in charge of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Programs for the Uniformed Forces in the country. This included the Kenyan Department of Defense, the Kenya Police, Prisons and National Youth Service HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care programs.

In 2006/2007 Ambassador Dr. Stephen Karau worked as the Director of Military Public Health with the US Army Medical Research Unit (USAMRU/WRP) in the KEMRI Campus, Nairobi. This job involved coordinating the Kenyan DOD HIV Program and also Research on other diseases of Military importance – TB, Malaria, and Leishmaniasis etc.

In the year 2010 Ambassador Dr. Stephen Karau was appointed as a Consultant in Aviation Medicine with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority where he held the appointment of Chief Medical Assessor a role that required him to oversee all the Aviation Medical Examiners in Kenya and also give occasional advice to the rest of East Africa. In 2011, his work in Aviation Medicine saw him elected for a 3 year term, the African President of CAPSCA, a global Organization dedicated to prevention of spread of communicable disease through air travel. In July 2014, he was re-elected for another term of 3 years.

Being a Public Health Physician enabled him to combine the above consultancy with being the Kenya Country Director for AIDS Healthcare Foundation which is a Global NGO providing HIV Care and Treatment in 32 countries worldwide. In Kenya AHF, has clinics in Mombasa, Nairobi, Makueni, Homa Bay Counties and plans to start in Nakuru, Muranga & Turkana and complete the targeted 30 counties by the year 2020.

In August, 2014, Ambassador Dr. Stephen Karau was appointed by H. E. the President of the Republic of Kenya as the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Kenya Mission to UN and other International Organizations in Switzerland.
Ambassador Dr. Karau is married to Dr. Lucy Wambui. They have four children and two of them have joined him in the noble Medical Profession.

Jointly they own and run Vam Health Services Kenya Ltd, which is a successful company in Pharmaceutical Trade and real estate development.