{"id":131102,"date":"2026-02-14T14:02:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenya-targets-26-high-burden-counties-in-maternal-health-drive\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:02:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:02:54","slug":"kenya-targets-26-high-burden-counties-in-maternal-health-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenya-targets-26-high-burden-counties-in-maternal-health-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya Targets 26 High-Burden Counties in Maternal Health Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia Feb 14 \u2013 Kenya is implementing sustained, wholesome health reform and delivery of services to curb maternal and neo-natal mortality, President William Ruto has said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The President said the government has restructured Kenya\u2019s health financing framework, expanding pre-paid access to maternal care through the new Social Health Authority.<\/p>\n

So far, he pointed out that the government has facilitated direct coverage for 50,000 vulnerable adolescent mothers, guaranteeing ante-natal, safe delivery and post-natal services.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he said 38,000 mothers have been onboarded to ensure that cost is never the reason a young woman is denied safe childbirth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day and age, it is unacceptable that women continue to lose their lives while giving birth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The President spoke during a High-Level Heads of State Side Event: From Commitment to Impact \u2013 Accelerating Maternal Mortality Reduction in Africa, on the sidelines of the 39th Ordinary African Union Summit, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

Present were Presidents Julius Maada of Sierra Leone, Duma Boko of Botswana, Faustin-Archange Touad\u00e9ra of Central African Republic, Taye Atske Selassie of Ethiopia and Rwanda Prime Minister Justin Nsengiyumva.<\/p>\n

To ensure equity in healthcare delivery, the President said the government is also concentrating resources in 26 high-burden counties and delivering bundled medical equipment directly to last-mile facilities to strengthen emergency obstetric and newborn care.<\/p>\n

He said the government has deployed 2,880 Community Health Promoters and 192 Community Health Assistants to extend coverage at grassroots level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese teams serve as the first point of contact in our villages and are supported by 25 Primary Care Networks that link local facilities to specialised referral care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the recent reductions in global health financing, including support to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Supplies Partnership, threaten to reverse hard-won gains in family planning, maternal care and birth spacing across our region.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya\u2019s response is to strengthen supply security through domestic capacity. We are implementing a 40% local procurement requirement to reduce exposure to external shocks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President said Kenya is keen on strengthening health intelligence and is moving from broad estimates to precise measurement through the Reproductive Age Mortality Survey approach.<\/p>\n

He said this will ensure the government knows exactly who is dying, where and why.<\/p>\n

The President invited partners to support accurate implementation and full digitisation of this data within a National Health Intelligence Platform.<\/p>\n

President Maada of Sierra Leone said Africa has made a clear commitment to end maternal deaths, commitments he said must now be turned into tangible results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question before us now is whether we are prepared to turn those commitments to results deliberately and consistently,\u201d he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia Feb 14 \u2013 Kenya is implementing sustained, wholesome health reform and delivery of services to curb maternal and neo-natal mortality, President William Ruto has said. The President said the government has restructured Kenya\u2019s health financing framework, expanding pre-paid access to maternal care through the new Social Health Authority. So far, he pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}