ABSTRACT
It is notable that a large proportion of medical research conducted in Kenya continues to focus on primary care, although it is conducted by senior specialists in tertiary teaching hospitals. The Moi University Department of Family Medicine admitted the first registrars in January 2005. Research conducted in Kenya in primary care settings from the late 1960s until the 1990s was not acknowledged as primary care research. What is remarkable is the fact that it forms the foundation on which more specialised research has been conducted. The emphasis on research training in the family medicine residency programmes has stirred research interest, and the majority of the graduates are advocating for the Ministry of Health to support primary care research within the public health services. The small number of well-trained research primary care team members in low-income countries such as Kenya makes the task of establishing and owning primary care research a challenging one.
