By Lenah Bosibori
Four Kenyan Civil Society Organizations have united to empower a diverse group of youths from various sectors on how to monitor and hold accountable both the County and National governments in healthcare matters, a sector highly devolved with huge budgets.
Speaking in Nairobi during the meeting dubbed ‘IT Innovation for Health Day’ George Gibore the Secretary General Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) said that it is a promising idea to engage the youth in addressing health matters because they will contribute to improving accountability.
“We are seeking youths who are using innovations to help us look into the matter of accountability and help in educating Kenyans so that we can force the government to be accountable, the biggest issue here is accountability, money allocated to healthcare has been looted and no one has been held accountable, we fear that whoever will be put in the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) will also loot,” said Gibore.
Gibore added that they will use the youth to sensitize them so that they will be able to understand the Act of Parliament and the Policies included in the health sector. “We will sensitize them to understand how they can check the government in the ongoing tendering process and the current ongoing programs.
The United Society Against Fraud, Waste and Abuse (USAWA) Program brings together four organizations, Transparency International Kenya, Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), Global Compact Network Kenya and Inte-Rreligious Council of Kenya to partner and implement the USAID USAWA programme that USAID supports to promote accountability in the health sector focusing on five counties that are Kakamega, Nakuru, Mombasa Kilifi and Isiolo.
Further Gibore said that they have seen how technology has evolved where people are able to record videos and use the system to conduct research and check from the comfort of their rooms how funds are being allocated in the entire healthcare system.
“We have seen how technology has evolved, people are able to record videos, use the system to do research and check from the comfort of your rooms how much funds have been allocated to health in each County,” said Gibore. “One is also able to ask people to respond to the kind of services they are getting from various government hospitals and be able to check the tendering process being involved in the sector.”
According to Gibore, accountability in the health sector has had a big challenge. “We have been losing a lot and yet we don’t have enough funds in our health sector, the little that we have put aside has been mismanaged both in the county and national government,” said Gibore.
The lack of healthcare workers is another critical issue, with public hospitals across the country, such as in Nairobi, Meru, and Kisii, facing severe shortages despite existing infrastructure. This shortage forces citizens to seek services from private facilities, using their funds.
“Our public hospitals don’t have doctors and health workers, Nairobi alone has 22 public hospitals that don’t have health workers, Meru we have 17 and 9 in Kisii, these hospitals have buildings without human resources, this means that even the funds we already have are not enough to employ health workers or we have misplaced priority that is not helping us in investing in the health sector,” added Gibore.
“We want accountability in the health sector and we are here to call upon the youths and tell them that this is their country and if we will not force the government to be accountable, then when funds are misused Kenyans are the ones to suffer,” he reiterated.
Gibore further added that the government’s focus on primary healthcare, though important, is undermined by inadequate budget allocations, such as the Sh 50 billion requested for SHA but only Sh 4 billion being allocated.
In response, we aim to push for both greater accountability and increased investment in the health system. By utilizing technology, we can enable youths to research and monitor healthcare funding and services more effectively, fostering transparency through social media and other platforms.
“The little money allocated to the health sector must be used for the purpose it is intended to, so that any other person who misuses these funds must be held responsible,” added Gibore.
On his part, Titus Gitonga, Deputy Chief of Party for the USAWA program at Transparency International, said that the programme focuses in the health sector because it is the biggest evolved function that receives quite several resources their work being to see how citizens can be more involved in promoting accountability for the health sector.
“We want to ensure that people have adequate access to information and can participate in governance and decision-making processes to ensure that governments capture their priorities,” said Gitonga.
Quinter Mbori the Executive Director at AMWIK said that they are dedicated to making healthcare in Kenya better for everyone by improving transparency and enforcement of regulation. “We aim to bring citizens together, businesses, media and the faith community to increase awareness for their rights as healthcare consumers,” said Mbori.
“You are the generation that is connected and informed and ready to make an impact, keep yourself informed on how funds are being allocated to your community, especially in key areas like healthcare, leverage social media and highlight the issues related to healthcare budgets and projects reporting, let us use what we have in our hands to advance the theory of zero tolerance to corruption,” she added.