How five counties were picked for emergency response vehicles

The decision by the Ministry of Health to give emergency response vehicles to counties on Friday was arrived at after a thorough need assessment.

Health CS Susan Wafula acknowledged that despite health being a devolved function, it is a shared responsibility hence the decision to share the vehicles with the counties based on emerging disease patterns and their strategic locations.

The five counties considered for the vehicles include Mandera, Elgeyo Marakwet, Embu, Bungoma and Nyamira.

Mandera County was considered due to its vastness while Elgeyo Marakwet was picked as a beneficiary due to the hardships especially due to the insecurity in the area.

“Especially now when there are insecurity challenges I was told it is quite difficult for the response to be done in the county. In my view together with my technical team we were convinced that Elgeyo Marakwet County deserved to get support,” Wafula said.

Bungoma on the other hand is among the best performing counties in the immunisation programme particularly in HPV vaccination among teenagers.

The county is among the 13 that were awarded by the ministry during the immunisation week last month.

As a result, the ministry together with the technical team decided that the county receives a vehicle to aid in their operations.

“I visited Embu county and in my long chat with the governor she demonstrated to me as a mother her vision on what she intends to achieve on matters of health and mobility was one of her challenges,” the CS explained.

“Therefore together with the team we said to support her then Embu County deserves to get support,” she added.

The CS further noted that during her visit to Nyamira two weeks ago for World Malaria Day she was impressed by the steps the county had taken to improve healthcare and she had committed to ensure the county gets an ambulance to support their operations.

Of the eight, three vehicles have been retained for national response and to be able to support another county that probably the criteria did not pick out.