The White Doctor with a Flair of getting things done, that’s a sentence that best describes Dr. Ian Clarke, an Irish, white medical doctor who has lived in Uganda since 1987. Dr. Clarke has served as the Mayor of Makindye Division of Kampala from April 2011 – April 2016. Clarke wears many hats he is a physician, missionary, philanthropist and entrepreneur currently He is the Chairman of the Ugandan Healthcare Federation, and a board member of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda.
He came to Uganda in 1987 and set up Kiwoko Mission Hospital, where he began his journey of creating a better Uganda. During the repression times that saw many Ugandans killed in the Luwelo war. He was a missionary doctor and he helped many wounded children, women and men. For two years he treated them under a tree in his own compound.
In 2011 Dr. Clarke decided to take a political step so as to sort out the problems facing his Ugandan country men and women head on. He decided to vie for an elective position and he won the elections of the mayor of Makindye Division with a land slide victory. He got down to work and managed to turn around Makidye division by fixing potholes, building toilets, clearing drainage channels, weeding out prostitution by providing jobs for the prostitutes . His campaign was three pronged “good roads, good health and economic development” This made him a favorite with the electorate, many Ugandans were so thrilled with him more than they were with the Ugandan politicians.
Dr. Clarke is a man driven by a fiery ambition to better the lives of Ugandans; it’s this drive that led him in 1996 to form the International Medical Group (IMG), the largest private healthcare organization in Uganda, encompassing a one hundred bed hospital, Medical Insurance Company, a non-profit foundation and a network of 18 primary care clinics.
Dr. Clarke is the owner and Executive Chairman of Clarke Group, Ltd. which has interests in education, hospitality and agribusiness. He has had extensive experience in establishing start-up businesses and growing them to a corporate level.
Settling for mediocrity is like settling for death, that’s a phrase he lives and swears by he vows to continue to uplift the lives of Ugandans to greater heights.
