The Tenwek Hospital College – School of Chaplaincy was established in 1991 as the L. Nelson Bell Chaplaincy Training School. Dr. Ernie Steury, who was the first Doctor to serve at Tenwek Hospital realized that the Institution needed full time chaplains to serve alongside the dedicated medical team. However, there was no college or university offering training in chaplaincy and this gave birth to the vision of opening one at Tenwek Hospital.
Over 29 years later, the school has trained more than 200 students from various African nations including Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Due to changing chaplaincy needs, the school has redesigned and upgraded its curriculum. This will ensure consistency with the ongoing development of competency based curriculum in all institutions of learning in Kenya. The school is working closely with Technical and Vocation Education and Training – Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council (TVET – CDACC) in the development of Certificate and Diploma in Chaplaincy curricula that is nearing completion. The school envisions to develop other areas of specialties in chaplaincy alongside other study levels to propel the chaplaincy studies as an area of professional growth.