Dr. Bernard Olayo’s Hewatele aims to solve Kenya’s deadly oxygen shortage, saving lives with a $20M medical innovation project.
In the heart of Kenya’s healthcare reform stands Dr. Bernard Olayo, a physician and public health expert on a mission to make medical oxygen available in every hospital, especially for children suffering from pneumonia—the nation’s second-leading cause of child mortality.
Through his social enterprise Hewatele, Dr. Olayo is leading a $20 million initiative to revolutionize oxygen access in Kenya—one of the most pressing gaps in the country’s overstretched healthcare system.
With a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:17,000—far from the WHO-recommended 1:1,000—Kenya’s public health system faces structural weaknesses. Chronic shortages of medical equipment, poor infrastructure, and budget constraints make it difficult to offer quality care.
When COVID-19 hit, hospitals ran out of oxygen, resulting in preventable deaths. This crisis galvanized Dr. Olayo into accelerating Hewatele’s mission.
Founded in 2014, years before the pandemic, Hewatele (Swahili for “abundant air”) was established to combat persistent oxygen shortages in public hospitals and rural clinics.
“Access to medical oxygen should never be a privilege; it is a basic human right,” says Dr. Olayo.
In partnership with the Center for Public Health and Development (CPHD), Hewatele runs oxygen production plants in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Siaya, supplying affordable oxygen to facilities often neglected by commercial suppliers.
Dr. Olayo is now leading a $20 million scale-up, including the construction of a liquid oxygen plant outside Nairobi. The goal: a decentralized supply model that shields hospitals from supply chain shocks.
“A single disruption in supply chains should not mean life or death,” he explains.
This facility will support Kenya and potentially neighboring East African countries, including Uganda and Tanzania.
According to the Ministry of Health, pneumonia kills over 22,000 children annually in Kenya. Studies show that oxygen therapy can reduce child pneumonia deaths by 35%.
Hewatele’s expanded distribution network aims to bring oxygen cylinders to underserved hospitals, particularly in rural counties like Turkana, Kilifi, and West Pokot.
“No child should die because they couldn’t breathe,” Dr. Olayo insists.
The initiative still faces formidable challenges:
- Inadequate infrastructure: Many rural hospitals lack electricity for oxygen concentrators.
- High logistics costs: Delivering cylinders to remote areas is expensive and logistically difficult.
- Corruption in healthcare: The KEMSA scandal in 2020 revealed misuse of COVID-19 funds, further eroding trust.
Still, Dr. Olayo remains hopeful:
“We need local solutions, but they must be globally supported. Transparency and accountability are non-negotiable.”
Hewatele is being studied as a replicable model for sub-Saharan Africa, where the WHO estimates over 500,000 children die annually due to oxygen deprivation.
Organizations like UNICEF and The Global Fund have expressed interest in backing Kenya’s scalable model.
“Kenya is showing the world that African innovation can drive global health transformation,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Dr. Olayo is clear: Kenya’s healthcare investment must extend beyond crises. The long-term solution is a public-private partnership model anchored in efficiency, equity, and sustainability.
“Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. We’re here to make that real for every Kenyan,” he says.
As Hewatele scales operations, Kenya may be on the brink of a new standard in healthcare delivery—one where oxygen flows abundantly to even the most remote corners of the country.
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