The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented stretch in the country’s health systems hastening the government’s reconfiguration of systems to contain the spread of the virus.
New data recently published by the national statistician showed that the government disbursed Sh106.7 billion to the sector, a 16 per cent growth.
This was also followed by Sh7.7 billion disbursed to counties for COVID-19 support. The ratio of government expenditure on health to total expenditure stood at 6.2 per cent in 2019/20 a lower percentage of targets bound by the Abuja Declaration pledge made by African Union countries in 2001 to allocate at least 15 per cent of their annual budget to improve the health sector.
While this was below the Abuja Declaration targets, it signalled a commitment to improving the country’s health services, in line with the aspirations of UHC. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yartani identified UHC as one of the spending priority areas in the 2021/22 budget, to provide quality and affordable healthcare to all Kenyans.
The government proposed an allocation of Sh121.1 billion to the health sector to support various programmes to improve health outcomes. Of this amount, Sh47.7 billion will fund activities and programs for the attainment of Universal Health Coverage.
The COVID-19 emergency response received an allocation of Sh8.7 billion, with an additional Sh14.3 billion for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. So far, the country has received about 6.3 million vaccines with about 3.6 million Kenyans receiving the dose.
This means that only about 3.3 per cent of the adult population are fully vaccinated. More needs to be done to promote vaccine uptake. Trust in the vaccines is vital, and is critically dependant on the ability of the government to communicate the benefits of vaccination, and to deliver the vaccines safely and effectively
