•Groups say the budget cuts may make it difficult for Kenya to meet the requirements of accelerated transition from Gavi funding, yet only 40 per cent of all counties had immunisation budget lines by 2019.
•In April last year, the Ministry of Health awarded 13 counties for ensuring their children are fully immunised, coverage of Pentavalent and Covid-19 vaccines.
Image: HANDOUT
Health advocates have opposed continued cuts in the immunisation budget, saying Kenya might be unable to pay for its childhood vaccines.
The immunisation budget was cut by Sh463 million in the last supplementary budget for 2023-24 from Sh9,892,774,930 to Sh9,429,639,546.
The Health NGOs' Network (Hennet), a network of health NGOs including the Kenya Red Cross Society, Jhpiego and Amref Health Africa, said the current cuts will affect vaccination efforts.
“This has likely undermined the ability of the National Vaccine Immunisation Programme (NVIP) to timely and urgently procure vaccines, undermining Ministry of Health’s efforts to carry out any campaign,” Hennet CEO Dr Margaret Lubaale said.
“Worse still, the vaccines budget that was about Sh2 billion, was cut to Sh1.250 billion, a reduction by Sh750 million. This comes at a time when Kenya country co-financing payments to Gavi in 2024 is US$ 11,655,533, while total Gavi support is US$ 13,054,393.”
She said the budget cuts may make it difficult for Kenya to meet the requirements of accelerated transition from Gavi funding, yet only 40 per cent of all counties had immunisation budget lines by 2019.
The network has also claimed half of the counties in Kenya could be experiencing shortage of BCG, Rotarvirus, tetanus and OPV and measles vaccines.
However, the Ministry of Health denied these claims.
According to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2024-25 and 2026-27, 84.7 per cent of children under one had been fully vaccinated in 2022-23. Although this is one of Africa’s highest rates, it was a decrease from 88 per cent in 2021-22.
Hennet and seven other organisations also wrote to Dr Robert Pukose, the chairman of National Assembly Committee on Health, asking MPs to address the budget cuts.
“We call upon the national assembly to increase the national budget for the national immunisation programme, as well as ringfence funds allocated to the programme for sustained gains,” they said.
The statement is also signed by Path-Kenya, Amref Health Africa, Waci-Health, Access to Medicines Kenya, Stop TB Partnership Kenya, TB Champions and Coalition for Health Research and Development (CHReaD).
In April last year, the Ministry of Health awarded 13 counties for ensuring their children are fully immunised, coverage of Pentavalent and Covid-19 vaccines.
They are Nakuru, Nyandarua, Mombasa, Vihiga, Murang’a, Tharaka Nithi, Kirinyaga, Migori, Bungoma, Nyamira, Machakos, Samburu and Nairobi.
Nakuru was awarded for being the best in having a large number of children who have received the required three doses of the pentavalent vaccine.
The first dose is given as a pentavalent vaccine only after a child is six weeks old.
The second and third doses are given at 10 and 14 weeks of age, respectively.
Nyandarua and Mombasa were first and second runners-up, respectively.
Vihiga was recognised as the best in fully immunised child coverage, with Murang’a and Tharaka Nithi being named first and second runners-up, respectively.
Machakos emerged as the best county in HPV vaccination coverage, with Kirinyaga and Nyamira being first and second runners-up, respectively.
Others include Migori, which was named the most improved in fully immunised child coverage.
Samburu (most-improved fully immunised child coverage among the arid lands), Nairobi (best in Covid-19 vaccine coverage among adults) and Bungoma (best in Covid-19 vaccine coverage among teenagers).
This comes even as the Health CS Susan Wafula expressed concern over the rising number of unvaccinated children in counties.
Wafula said despite Kenya making significant strides in the overall improvement in immunisation coverage, some counties are still lagging behind.
This has been attributed to critical challenges such as insecurity, geographical and social barriers, despite the effort by the county teams to reach the children with the life-saving vaccines.
“We need to work together to tackle the challenges in a tailored fashion due to the uniqueness of each county,” Wafula said.