The Department of Public Health was formally established in September, 2010. Four Thematic Heads were appointed in October, 2020 and the Department was officially launched on 22nd February, 2011 by the Vice-Chancellor. Previous heads of the Department are Dr. Dismas Ongore (2010-2016) and Prof. Mutuku A. Mwanthi (2016-2020). The current head is Professor Joyce M. Olenja (w.e.f. February, 2020).
The Department is made up of the following four Thematic Units which are mandated to develop and offer courses as follows:
1. Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit
i) Epidemiology
ii) Biostatistics and Computing
iii) Population Sciences
iv) Research Methods and Methodology
2. Health Care System and Policy Development Unit
i) Health Planning and Policy Development
ii) Health Services Administration & Evaluation
iii) Primary Health Care
iv) Health Economics
3. Disease Prevention, Control & Health Promotion Unit
i) Communicable and Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control
ii) Family Health
iii) Nutrition
iv) Environmental Health
v) Occupational and Industrial Health and Safety
4. Community Health Sciences Unit
i) Social Sciences and Health
ii) Health Promotion and Communication
The Department teaches both undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Sciences (BSc. MLST), Master of Public Health (MPH), and PhD in Public Health.
In addition to teaching of the above courses, the Department teaches and Coordinates the following common undergraduate course offered under the Board of Common Undergraduate courses:
- CCS 010 HIV/AIDS Course
