The president of Kenya reveals his ambitious plans to enhance Kenya’s health sector

Kenya's President William Ruto is inaugurating a level five AAR Hospital worth Sh3.5 billion, in Kiambu.
The president of Kenya is buffing up Kenya’s health sector by employing thousands of health workers in the country.
The president in the same breath is advocating for a universal healthcare program.

Kenya's President William Ruto is scheduled to preside over today's inaugural opening of a level five AAR Hospital in Kiambu.

The 140-bed state-of-the-art hospital, which began operations in 2021, was built at the cost of Sh3.5 billion with the help of a number of partners, including the World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation, International Fund for Health in Africa, and Swedfund. Hospital Holdings Investment would manage the institution.

The hospital is outfitted with four operating theatres and a 12-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It also contains a nine-bed High Dependency Unit (HDU) and a sophisticated neonatal intensive care unit (ICU).

President William Ruto advocated various healthcare reforms to simplify the functioning of important healthcare delivery organizations. Ruto emphasized that his government's health strategy is based on fundamental changes in how healthcare is funded and delivered.

"We shall reform the National Health Insurance Fund to make it a social health insurance provider, improve procurement of medical supplies, deploy an integrated state-of-the-art health information system," Ruto said.

"Most importantly we shall provide adequate human resources at all levels. Contributions will be graduated and will now be based on income," he added.

The president of Kenya stated last year that he was determined to improve Kenya's health system, amongst other key government initiatives. The president hinted that the improvement in the health care system in the country is one of the more essential sectors his administration would focus on.

Almost as recently as the aforementioned announcement, President William Ruto also pledged to ensure 100,000 community health workers (CHWs) and 4,000 doctors are hired to enable Kenyans easily access healthcare, following his meeting with officials from the doctors’ union at State House to discuss the Kenya Kwanza health agenda.

There he also reiterated his aspiration for a publicly funded universal healthcare scheme that would assure improved access to quality treatment without financial hardship for anybody.

Davji Atellah of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists' Union, led the discussions. He stated; “it was also agreed that a hub and spoke model would be applied where these CHWs would be organized in a 25-member cohort each reporting to a medical doctor.”

He also added, “as a Union, we fully support this idea because we believe that Kenyans deserve to get uninterrupted services free from mismanagement by the county governments.”