UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
MAL:35:20
How Big Four Pillars
Can Reduce Cost Of
Healthcare In Kenya
By Gordon Odundo
W
hile Kenya has made significant
reforms in the health sector
towards achieving universal
health coverage, attaining quality and
affordable health care needs aggressive
progression of the three strategic pillars
of manufacturing, food security and
affordable housing under the Big Four
Agenda.
The most urgent thing the government
must do is to accelerate and help scale up
the manufacturing sector by promoting
development of local industries that
manufacture drugs and provision of an
enabling environment to support growth
of existing small manufacturers to boost
their local output.
Increasing production of pharmaceuticals,
lab reagents as well as other medical
supplies in the local market will reduce
the overall cost of healthcare and enable
sustainability of UHC as presently most
of these items are imported.
What this means is the country will
significantly lower importation costs
especially on foreign exchange, with the
money saved put into other essential
use. Subsequently, this will lead to a
drop in direct cost of importing medical
equipment and allowing the Medical
Equipment Service lease to County
governments at a lower cost, thereby
freeing taxpayers’ money to providing
essential drugs to health facilities across
Kenya.
With a promise to construct five hundred
thousand decent, and affordable housing
units by 2022, the implementation
plan to deliver mega housing projects
across various counties has been gradual.
Housing ranks high as a fundamental need
and is recognized in the Constitution…
as a right to accessible and adequate
housing and sanitation. But with
unplanned urbanization in Kenya, and
over 2.5 million slum dwellers in over 200
settlements, it poses a major public health
challenge.
With no access to safe and clean water,
sanitation, and durable housing structures,
the spread of infectious diseases greatly
Achieving provision of decent homes fast-
er can help the country tame its suscep-
tibility to infectious diseases and make
Kenya ready to fight off prevalence of
deadly disease outbreaks like the dread-
ed Coronavirus that has wiped many lives
and left thousands infected and affected
across the globe.
38 MAL35/20 ISSUE
increases contributing to the high
prevalence of infectious diseases especially
within informal settlements where a
simple precaution like social distancing is
a mirage!
Similarly, lack of standardized housing
climate, adapted and ventilated homes
lowers the chances of achieving 100%
health coverage. It should be noted that
rapid urbanization has caused lifestyle
changes with sedentary lifestyles and
pollution resulting in a great rise in
infectious diseases.
We therefore need to see increased
activities
around
Private
Public
Partnership (PPPs) to aggressively drive
the affordable housing agenda towards
provision of environmentally friendly
houses to thousands if not millions of
Kenyans.
Aspects like improved ventilation and
sanitation must be key considerations
to ensure the wellbeing of dwellers by
reducing possibility and instances of
infectious diseases and chronic illnesses.
Achieving provision of decent homes
faster can help the country tame its
susceptibility to infectious diseases and
make Kenya ready to fight off prevalence
of deadly disease outbreaks like the
dreaded Coronavirus that has wiped many
lives and left thousands infected and
affected across the globe.
Already, a cloud of uncertainty and fear
hangs in the air over the level of the
country’s preparedness to deal with such a
calamity, despite current efforts to control
traffic flow into the country from airports