Let’s mobilise health resources locally not grants, Prime CS Mudavadi urge on health financing
The Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has read a riot act against health sector players urging them to focus on mobilising resources locally instead of waiting for grants from the manipulative foreign donors.
Prime CS rallied for new strategies saying a paradigm shift is key away from donations that may never come.
Speaking during the official opening of the National High Level Dialogue on Health Financing Conference at a Nairobi hotel today, Mudavadi, who represented president William Ruto, said that the country will need to think beyond external sources of funds.
Among those present were Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, the Prime CS said that with the dwindling finances due to the withdrawal of grants by key stakeholders, the private sector will play a critical role in the health sector.
Last month, the Global Fund threatened to withdraw a Sh3.7billion mosquito tender financing contract following tendering malpractices by the Ministry of Health officials and their co-conspirators at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) all under Nakhumicha’s docket.
Global Fund rescinded their decision to cancel the financing deal a day after President William Ruto sacked former Health Principal Secretary Josephine Mburu and suspended the board and former Chief Executive Officer Terry Ramadhani.
The scandal threatened Sh54billion tenders financed by Global Fund.
The fund through its Kenya coordinating mechanism has advertised tenders worth Sh54billion tenders to cover the fight against Malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis for the next three years.
The funds utilisation period is between July 1, 2024, to June 30 2027.
“For the past 21 years, the Global Fund has worked with partners around the world to fight HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria including strengthening health and community systems. Based on the Global Fund Board’s decision in December 2022 on the funding available for the 2023-25 allocation period, Kenya has been allocated US$392,989,068 for HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and building resilient and sustainable systems for health (RSSH). Kenya is also eligible for additional catalytic matching funds totaling to $15 million,” An advertisement published in MyGov, the government weekly advertising publication read in part.
