NAIROBI,Kenya June 12 – The government has challenged county health leaders to accelerate the implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) reforms, warning that the success of Kenya’s ambitious health financing programme now depends on effective service delivery at the facility level.

📻 Breaking It Down

Speaking during a meeting with county health officials, Principal Secretary for Medical Services Dr. Ouma Oluga said the country’s health reforms had moved beyond policy formulation and entered a critical implementation phase, with millions of Kenyans already benefiting from services financed through the Social Health Authority (SHA).

According to the PS, 31.39 million Kenyans had registered with SHA as of June 8, 2026, while the authority had paid out Sh147.37 billion in healthcare claims since its inception in October 2024.

“These are not projections. These are facts recorded in the system,” Oluga said. “That is the Kenya we are building. Not a Kenya that talks about health coverage, but a Kenya that pays for it, at scale, in real time.”

📌 What You Need to Know

The authority has also contracted 11,034 health facilities nationwide and financed more than 1.16 million safe deliveries, signalling what the government describes as significant progress in expanding access to healthcare services.

Oluga noted that the country’s legal framework for UHC is now fully operational following the implementation of the Social Health Insurance Act, the Digital Health Act, the Primary Health Care Act and the Facility Improvement Financing Act.

He reminded county governments that Kenya had committed to achieving self-reliance in health financing within the next three years, while implementation of the Kenya-US Health Cooperation Framework signed in December 2025 was expected to begin in earnest next month.

“The reforms are no longer in design. They are in delivery,” he said. “Every gap between policy and patient experience is now a gap between us and our constitutional obligation.”

The PS singled out maternal health as a key priority under the government’s EWENE Rapid Results Initiative, which aims to reduce maternal mortality by 80 percent by 2028.

He revealed that SHA had financed 1,166,144 deliveries at a cost exceeding Sh17 billion, with counties receiving over Sh9 billion from the programme. Additionally, nearly 99,000 adolescent mothers had received support through the Teenage Mothers Programme.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya