Did you know that three out of every four Kenyans rely on public health facilities for healthcare services?
This means that if there was an outbreak, more than 80 percent of all Kenyans would flock public facilities and only a paltry less than 20% would have access to a private hospital.
In the 2016/2017 fiscal year starting in June, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich allocated Sh35.6 billion to healthcare. This is dwarfed in comparison to the Sh130 billion allocated to education.
When presenting the budget statement in parliament, Rotich highlighted the success so far in providing counties with state of the art equipment in partnership with county governments.
While both county and national governments say healthcare is a priority, the budget allocation says otherwise while a visit to most public health centres will leave most bewildered. There are no drugs, personnel or the infrastructure to allow administration of health services.
So, what do Kenyan citizens think about the country’s health-care sector?
According to Twaweza, half of citizens feel that Kenya’s health care system has major problems. Top of this concern is the cost and availability of drugs which were cited as significant challenges.
Only 1% of Kenyans feel that the healthcare system in Kenya is perfect, according to the survey findings.
Despite all the flamboyance of launching ambulances in counties like Machakos and Kiambu, half of the citizens do not know of any ambulance that can be called to their village in case there is an emergency.
Sadly, two-thirds (68%) of Kenyans do not have health insurance which is why every time needs medical care there has to be a harambee.
On the bright side, though, health workers are the main source of health-related information for citizens. This means that despite all the campaigns we spend money on, most of the info is never useful and those targeted have to get the information from the said personnel.
Interestingly, one in four households reports having members screened for specific non-communicable diseases (NCDs) meaning the people have been tested for any of the diseases like cancer or diabetes and high blood pressure.
It also emerges that male adults dominate family health care decisions at the household level. This could be interpreted to mean that men still call the shots on matters like contraceptives, the number of children to have etc.
This information in Twaweza’s flagship Sauti za Wananchi mobile phone panel survey conducted between June 7 and 28, 2016 shows that devolving health has a long way to go to address problems facing the ordinary mwananchi.