Different types of heat are expected to be felt as Uhuru lands in Nyanza county. However the president is accompanied with some good news to Kisumu which include the launch of Universal Health Care programme.
The Sh3.9 billion UHC programme targets four counties, which apart from Kisumu include Machakos, Isiolo and Nyeri. At least 3.2 million residents are expected to benefit from the pilot project.
Speaking during the Jamhuri day celebrations, the Head of state termed the programme as a key milestone in the journey towards attaining universal health coverage.
Recently while appearing before the whole house of the Senate, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the main aim of the UHC programme, is to ensure all members of the public have access to affordable healthcare by 2022.
“In order to actualize UHC, the ministry in 2018/2019 budget is piloting the program in their counties. The package will be uniform to all households for a period of 15months,” she told the house.
But on the way to the success of this noble initiative stands the graft monster.
Already, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), which the government is leveraging on to finance the UHC, is in the headlines over the theft of billions of shillings by its top managers. And this is a stark warning that the road to the launch of the programme is bumpy.
The Kenya Association of Private Hospitals (KAPH) chief executive Officer, Timothy Olweny has cautioned that lack of comprehensive investigation into the scandals would adversely affect the smooth implementation of the UHC where an estimated Sh3.9 billion has already been pumped into the pilot programme.
On his part, Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) country director Samuel Kinyanjui says the definition of UHC remains unclear while theft of billions of shillings is unexplained.
“The root cause of the failed health market remains undefined, and the preoccupation with inputs such as funding, staffing, medicines and infrastructure blinding the industry governance and policy makers from the goal of UHC”, he said.
Kinyanjui said high fees for services is the main cause of the high wastage of over 40 per cent of public health resources. He wishes this could have been sorted out before the launch, or even by the time of the actual rollout in the next two years.
At least 18 senior officials at NHIF are in court for allegedly misappropriating Sh1.1 billion from the fund. Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Emily Kamau summed up the enormity of the scandal, saying the offense should be equated to murder as many people might have died because of the loss of the money.