By Brian Kiprono - Reporter
Kenya , August 18, 2026 - Kenya must stop waiting for health emergencies to strike before responding, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has warned, calling for a health system capable of anticipating and surviving future crises.
Speaking at the Kenya Health Summit 2026 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi on Tuesday, Mudavadi said emerging threats, from disease outbreaks and climate change to antimicrobial resistance, require Kenya to rethink how it prepares for emergencies.
“Health is no longer only a social-sector concern; it is a question of national resilience, economic security and sustainable development,” Mudavadi said.
He said a health system should be judged not by how it performs when everything is normal, but by its ability to keep services running when the country is hit by a crisis.
“The real test of a health system is not how it performs when conditions are normal, but whether it can continue functioning when they are not,” he said.
Mudavadi called for stronger disease surveillance, diagnostic services, emergency preparedness, health workforce, supply chains and digital information systems to ensure Kenya can detect and respond to threats early.
He also warned that climate change was creating new health risks through floods, drought, extreme heat, food insecurity and changing disease patterns, urging the country to build climate resilience into health infrastructure and emergency planning.
The Prime CS also called for greater investment in local production of medicines, vaccines and diagnostic equipment, arguing that essential health products should be treated as strategic assets during emergencies.
He said unpredictable global health financing meant Kenya needed to have an “honest conversation” about sustainable domestic financing while maintaining partnerships that strengthen local capacity.
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Mudavadi linked investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing and health research to wider economic development, saying local production could create jobs while reducing vulnerability to disruptions in global supply chains.
He further called for stronger cooperation between national and county governments, as well as cross-border disease surveillance, given Kenya’s role as a regional hub for trade, aviation and tourism.
“Protecting health security also protects our economy and our position as a regional hub,” he said.
Mudavadi said the success of Kenya’s health reforms should ultimately be judged by what citizens experience when they need care.
“The ultimate test of reform, however, is not the number of policies or institutions we establish, but the experience of the citizen,” he said.
He urged stakeholders at the summit to turn their commitments into measurable action, asking that every undertaking answer three questions: who will do it, by when, and how Kenyans will know it has been done.
“The question before us is not whether Kenya will face another health shock. We will. The question is whether, when it comes, we will be ready,” Mudavadi said.