Kisumu County Governor Prof Anyang Nyong’o has assured Kisumu residents that his administration is open to being held accountable.

Nyong’o made the remarks during this year’s State of the County address at Tom Mboya Labour College, Kisumu.

Nyong’o urges residents 

The governor asked the residents not to shy away from keeping his administration in check to deliver on what he promised to do in office.

He spoke as he gave stock of his administration’s achievements in the last year, promising to do even much more with the support and goodwill of the residents of Kisumu at large.

” I urge you to continue supporting us in this beautiful journey of making Kisumu the business and investment hub for the future,” Nyong’o said.

He explained that they had made good progress in improving curative, preventive, public, and family health by training, expanding, and equipping a formidable team of community health workers who supplement a large team of healthcare professionals at various levels.

“Our health indicators have systematically improved as reported by the Annual Demographic and Health Surveys. We continue to invest in training, research, data collection, hospital modernization, and service delivery,” he said.

Nyong’o was happy that they had recorded a reduction in maternal mortality by about 30 per cent from 495 to 343 per 100,000 live births and child mortality from 54 to 39 per 100,000 live births with the under 5 mortality reducing from 79 to 63 deaths per 1,000 live births as recorded in the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022.

On access to services, the number of women delivering in health facilities increased from 69 per cent to 94 per cent and this is because of the completion and operationalization of various health facilities in the county and investment in community health services.

“We have operationalized 280 Community Health Units, working closely with 151 Public Health Facilities and 5 Faith-Based health facilities across the County. The number of visits made by CHWs to family households increased from 187,977 in 2022 to 206,420 in 2023,” the governor said.

Nyong’o said Kisumu County Electronic Community Health Information Systems (eCHIS) has also been a trailblazer.

It has increased efficiency and improved the quality and consistency of patient care.

“Further, the department of Health’s commitment to efficient data management is evident in the successful transfer and storage of 100 per cent of community health data to our centralized database,” he said.

Kisumu digitization

Through strategic collaboration with partners, he committed to completely digitalize the Community Health Systems.

Currently, he noted that 84 per cent of the Community Health Workers (CHWs) were now digitally empowered.

“I am proud to report that the National Government has picked lessons from our successful UHC pilot implementation and the program is now being rolled out countrywide. Our Marwa Solidarity Health Insurance program is a statement of success,” he restated.

Many counties have come for benchmarking here for the design and implementation of their own social health insurance programs.

Launched in March 2021, the scheme currently covers a population of 5409 principal indigent households and approximately 21,636 dependents, including spouses and children across all Kisumu sub-counties.

Healthcare facilities have so far recorded 38,950 clinic visits by the indigent population (1551 inpatients, 37,400 outpatient visits) since 2020.

Implementation of Marwa has led to a steady increase in the claims reimbursements by most Kisumu health facilities.

In the financial year 2021/22, the facilities made claims worth Ksh 175 million. This amount increased to Ksh279M in the 2022/2023 Financial Year.

To achieve 70 per cent health Insurance penetration in Kisumu and effectively finance the healthcare system, the program is working towards gaining traction in the informal sector targeting organized groups and self-paying members for example Market vendors, Jua kali traders, and Cooperative Saccos among others.

“As we can all recall, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our government established the Emergency Operation Centre at the Kisumu County Referral Hospital to act as a centre for coordination of all medical and public health emergencies, humanitarian responses, and all public inquiries,” he disclosed.

The facility continues to play a significant role in our health system and continues to be our command centre for all emergencies.

In the last financial year alone, the call centre received 6109 calls and coordinated 2270 medical referrals.

One disease outbreak was managed and four (4) diseases namely dengue Fever, scabies, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Rabies with the potential of causing outbreaks were detected and appropriate action was taken.

One major success for the centre was in the coordination of a cholera outbreak in record time in April 2023.

Last year, they piloted the use of Zipline Logistics Company for the warehousing, storage of medical supplies, and the use of drone technology to deliver emergency lifesaving medical supplies and replenishment of stock-outs in health facilities. Since its launch in February 2023, a total of 1,382 deliveries have been made in the 24 facilities where flight authorization has been obtained in the County.

Of these deliveries, 99 (7.1 per cent) were emergency medications like rabies vaccine for the treatment of dog bites, injections for the management of hypertension, and adrenaline injections, among others.

All the interventions in the health docket require functional structures to take place.

Among the key projects undertaken in the year include the completion of five health facilities namely Ombaka Health Centre in Nyando Sub-county, Aluoch Adhier Health Centre in – Nyando Sub county, Michura Health Centre in Nyakach Sub-county, Malela Dispensary in Seme Sub-county and Nyadado Dispensary – Seme Sub-county. 

Kisumu County intentions

This year, the government intends to begin the process of rehabilitating one facility per ward (thirty-five facilities) to be their mini hubs at a cost of 150 million shillings. They have also started the construction of Ratta Mother and Child Hospital in Seme Sub-County in collaboration with the Safaricom Foundation.

In addition, he said they were working on the completion of the JOOTRH Cancer Centre in partnership with a Russian company on a joint venture, and the Sickle Cell Management Centre in collaboration with Fortis hospital from New Delhi, India.

“I would be doing a disservice to the health docket if I did not elaborate on our other ambitious programs at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH),” he claimed

Over the last two years, JOOTRH made great strides in various endeavours.

The facility served 305,089 clients, these included 1791 major operations and 868 minor surgeries mainly for Neurosurgeries, Cleft palate/lip repair and oncology surgeries just to mention but a few.

“Due to the good relationship we have with our partners, the facility recently widened its scope in the management of cancer and other conditions by bringing on board a maxillofacial specialist and GYNA Oncologist. The two are expected to deliver quality and highly specialized services to patients who would otherwise travel many miles for treatment. Our women diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, Endometrial or Uterine Cancer, and gestation trophoblastic disease will now experience improved services,” he said

On water, the county had built over a thousand boreholes and 27 new water facilities and rehabilitated 14. In a bid to combat the effects of climate change and ensure sustainable management of water facilities they have also embarked on solarisation of all water facilities.

In education, they spent sh205 million on bursaries and scholarships in the last financial year. About 1400 had benefited from the facility.

On roads, the county had engaged national youth services to help construct the roads thus saving up to 7 million per kilometre. Previously this cost Sh35 million.

In energy, the governor disclosed that they had connected 10 villages(grid marginalized areas), with 12 new transformers awaiting metering to over 12,000 households, within the last two years terming it a remarkable leap forward.