KENYA – The Government of Kenya has channeled strategic financial investments to the health sector geared towards health systems strengthening, both at national and County levels to accelerate attainment of Universal Health Coverage.
Speaking at Gatundu Level Four Hospital during the facility tour by French Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Mr Franck Riester, Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said that the government has focused on strengthening Primary Health Care systems to provide community-based health services through a national framework and has also expanded Critical Care and Diagnostic Capacity.
“There is also a concerted effort to bridge the gap in human resources with recruitment of an additional 2, 177 Interns under the youth empowerment programme and 8,229 contractual staff who were distributed across all the 47 counties,” the PS said.
The PS also informed of ongoing provision of additional physical infrastructure to health facilities by connecting them to water, electricity, internet and access roads.
“We are also establishing a Government-led digitization of health records and information systems for telemedicine; we look forward to having Kenya and France clinical focus groups through the Telemedicine platforms,” she said.
France has partnered with Kenya under France-Kenya Emergency Response to Fight COVID-19 Pandemic project valued at about Kshs. 2 Billion (Euros 15,510,493,) that was signed in December 2020 to strengthen the capacity for twenty County facilities.
Gatundu Level Five Hospital, is set to benefit from equipment support amounting to approximately Kshs. 90 million.
The PS appreciated the French Government’s continued support as a strategic development partner to Kenya through provision of financing agreements for high priority projects.
This is as the country continues to improve systems to manage Covid-19 and economic recovery. The US has been a worthwhile partner in helping Kenya fight the pandemic.
Yesterday, the country received more than 900,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to boost its nationwide inoculation exercise.
According to the health ministry, the 990,990 doses were donated by the U.S. through the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX facility.
Friday’s vaccines arrival was the fifth this month as the East African country continues to see an upsurge in the arrival of the life-saving jabs.
Kenya has now received a total of 8,997,810 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The total number of vaccine doses administered in the country stood at 5,153,667 by Thursday, with some 1,545,377 fully vaccinated.
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