By James Murimi - Reporter
Kenya, August 19 ,2026 - Deputy President Prof Kithure Kindiki has challenged national and county governments to shift the focus of health reforms from policy announcements and massive investments to measurable results for patients.
Prof Kindiki said the success of the Government’s health agenda would ultimately be judged not by the amount of money allocated, equipment purchased or programmes launched, but by whether Kenyans could access quality care when they needed it.
Speaking during the second day of the Kenya Health Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi on Wednesday, the Deputy President said the country must now demand value from its health investments.
“The health system performance is not just the total sum of individual programmes; it is the reliability of the complete patient journey,” he said.
He said the Government needed to establish a single, coordinated health system in which the patient remained at the centre of service delivery.
Prof Kindiki identified healthcare workers, medical equipment and commodities, and timely service delivery as the three critical components required to make the reforms work.
He warned that failure in any one of the areas would immediately affect patients.
“A trained healthcare worker without medicine cannot treat. Modern equipment without personnel or maintenance cannot provide health services. Financing cannot improve health if the facility is not ready to deliver care,” he said.
The Deputy President said the Government would therefore begin placing greater emphasis on performance indicators, including medicine availability, equipment functionality, waiting times, early diagnosis, successful referrals and maternal and child health outcomes.
He said the Primary Healthcare Fund had received Sh27 billion and disbursed Sh23 billion to more than 9,300 Level Two and Level Three facilities.
The fund, he said, had supported more than 20 million outpatient visits by 15 million Kenyans, while 278 Primary Care Networks had been established across the country.
Prof Kindiki said the next challenge was ensuring that the billions being invested in primary healthcare translated into better services at the facility level.
“Every shilling” spent on health, he said, must improve facility readiness and patient outcomes.
He said primary healthcare should become the first and most dependable point of contact for patients, allowing illnesses to be detected and treated early before they become severe and expensive.
The Deputy President also placed emphasis on emergency medical services, saying the Government was working to make the SHA 9-2-2 emergency lifeline dependable across all counties.
He said the system should provide a seamless link between emergency calls, ambulance dispatch, referral facilities and financing for evacuation and initial treatment.
“In an emergency, geography and household income must not determine who survives,” Prof Kindiki said.
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He also challenged the Government to ensure that investment in medical equipment translated into actual services.
Under the National Equipment Service Programme, county facilities have received diagnostic imaging, theatre, intensive care, laboratory and other specialised equipment.
But Prof Kindiki cautioned that simply delivering machines was not enough.
The equipment must be operational, he said, with trained personnel, maintenance and adequate consumables available to ensure patients receive timely services.
On the health workforce, Prof Kindiki said 24,000 healthcare interns had been deployed across the 47 counties since 2022, while 262 medical registrars had been sponsored for specialised training.
The Government had also committed to recruiting an additional 5,000 nurses and midwives.
He called for a long-term workforce plan linking training, internships, recruitment, deployment, career development and retention.
“Health workers must be planned for and supported as a strategic national asset,” he said.
Prof Kindiki also revealed that KEMSA’s order fill rate had improved from 40 per cent to 91 per cent, following additional government support.
The national government, he said, had injected Sh1.5 billion into KEMSA and facilitated a Sh10 billion credit line.
But he said the ultimate goal should be an integrated supply chain capable of predicting shortages before facilities run out of essential medicines.
The Deputy President further called for integration of KEMSA’s digital systems with the Digital Health Agency’s medical data to provide real-time visibility of commodities and health services.
He said Kenya should simultaneously invest in local manufacturing of medicines, diagnostic devices and other medical products to strengthen supply security and create jobs.
Prof Kindiki said the Government, counties, healthcare workers, agencies and development partners must work as one to ensure the reforms achieve their intended purpose.
“We must move from policy pronouncements to programmes, from programmes to performance, from investments to value, and from the promise of reforms to reliable healthcare delivery,” he said.