The country is quickly overcoming the anxiety occasioned by the health funding scare following the January Stop-Work order by US President Donald Trump.

It has emerged that county governments are taking the lead in forestalling the apprehension by integrating various health programmes.

Nandi County, for instance, had 80 per cent of the staff already integrated into its payroll system, even way before the Stop-Work order, according to the county Health and Sanitation Executive, Angeline Kirui.  

“This meant that when the Stop-Work order was read, we had staff on duty. And so, I think that is one way of building resiliency and sustainability so that when the partner is away, you don’t stop service delivery,” said Kirui in Naivasha where the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) is hosting a three-day Joint Annual Programme Review, meant to collectively advance Kenya’s vision for a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable health system.

New order

By building resilient systems, Kirui pointed out that through the lessons learnt from Covid-19, and the Stop-Work order by the US government, Kenya is already re-adjusting most of its programmes to align with the new order.

“Because we are going to look back into our potential and we are going to come out stronger,” she said, making an appeal for collaboration through concerted efforts that are targeted at specific strategies to be able to control these diseases.  

She said what needs to be done is for the ministry to build systems that enable the country to account for the resources allocated to service delivery.

Kirui proposed support for professional training to ensure quality data collection, an area that needs to be strengthened.

“We need to allocate resources for training because quality work would not be realised if we do not train,” she said, noting that Kenya has what it takes as a country to have the resources it requires to strategically utilise them by integrating the systems.

Medical Services Principal Secretary, Dr Ouma Oluga, lauded counties such as Nandi and Makueni for taking up the challenge following the US Stop-Work order to build resilience.

“Ordinarily, I know county governments would say, what is the national government doing?”

Minimising the anxiety

“But this time around, we saw quite a different attitude, where they integrated the health care workers,” Dr Oluga said, noting that most of the counties made arrangements on how to cover community work.  

“I mean, it can never be better than that. That you took it upon yourselves to act,” he said.

The PS said as the ministry was grappling with how to show leadership, and minimise the anxiety, there was panic through information coming from so many sources, and made patients go without ARVs.