Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

President Uhuru Kenyatta used this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations to outline the development projects his administration has achieved in the health sector.

He said he had been able to see the full realisation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which has registered a 400 per cent growth in the number of Kenyans under the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).  Currently, 17.1 million Kenyans have been insured, compared with 4.4 million in April 2013.

“When we chose the legacy frame of Restoration of Dignity, we wanted to reduce the burden of indignity on our people. We targeted healthcare because this is where the ‘poverty of dignity’ was most pronounced …

“Will future administrations backslide to the former corrupt practices of running down public institutions and diverting medicines? Or will they nurture and upscale what we have achieved?” he asked.

He said his administration had constructed an extra 1,912 healthcare facilities across all levels countrywide, a 43 per cent increase in such facilities. He also told of the gains made in treatment of chronic diseases, such as kidney ailments.