Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja has launched free National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) membership to vulnerable people in the county.
On Saturday, he handed over NHIF cards to 52 beneficiaries of Gaza village in Voi after discovering high number of people in the society who cannot access medical services due to lack of funds.
Recently Samboja made an impromptu visit to the village and he was moved by a young girl who had rashes all over her body but could not go to hospital because she could not afford to pay for treatment.
"This is the reason why I decided to get them the NHIF membership to help them pay hospital bills," he said, adding that they were processing more cards to benefit the people.
"In the next five years, we want to have registered as many people as possible across the county."
On Tuesday next week, Samboja said they were going to launch the distribution of drugs worth Sh39 million to all health facilities across the county.
"I don’t want to hear people being referred to private chemists to purchase drugs," he warned.
"NHIF officials from our county should ensure that NHIF cards are activated within one month, this is happening in other counties therefore there is no reason why our cards take two months to be activated. Free NHIF membership to county residents was among my top campaign agendas," he said.