Civil society demands zero rating of taxes on HIV, TB drugs

Health lobbies have called on the next government to ensure that taxes on all health commodities especially TB, Malaria and HIV drugs are zero-rated.

The lobbies further want investments in health increased to ensure the country moves towards self-sustainability amid reducing funding from donors.

The lobbies include AIDS Healthcare Foundation Kenya, Stop TB Partnership Kenya, the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK) and the Coalition for Health Research and Development (CHReaD).

Others include Concern Worldwide, Lean on Me and Ambassador for Youth and Adolescent Rep Health Programme (AYARHEP).

HIV funding from Pepfar has been reducing since 2018, without any notable increase from the Kenyan government.

Currently, Kenya has 1.2 million HIV patients in treatment.

Last year, the Kenya Revenue Authority demanded Sh100 million tax on ARVs and other HIV commodities.

This standoff led to a six-month stockout of ARVs and testing kits across the country.  

“We have been going through challenges with lack of commodities so we want to ask the incoming government to fully take charge of HIV and TB treatment and not leave it in the hands of donors and if there is any help coming to our country then they should not charge taxes and levies in such areas,” NEPHAK ED Nelson Otuoma said.

United States has proposed a massive cut to its annual funding for Kenya’s HIV programmes.

The US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) complained Kenya has become one of its biggest beneficiaries since 2003 but is doing too little to increase domestic funding to fight HIV.

This year, Pepfar said it will cut its funding to Kenya by Sh2.27 billion.

“The next government that comes into power must prioritise investing in health from domestic resources because we are no longer getting international support for health and we are guided by some international commitments that we have signed into,” Stop TB Partnership national coordinator Evelyn Kibuchi said.

The civil society organisations also want NHIF to put in place strategies that will ensure equitable access to healthcare by covering all medical bills for all paid up members and vulnerable populations regardless of their social status.

They also want the national insurer to cover health needs for adolescent girls and young people, people living with HIV, TB, malaria and mental health as part of the essential benefits package including diagnostics.

“One of the things we are pushing for is two per cent of the GDP to go towards health research. We now have Moderna which is about to start manufacturing vaccines here not only for Covid but for all vaccines and this is something that needs to be done,” James Kamau from CHReaD said.

According to the CSOs, the UHC journey that sought to see all people access essential health services through a single unified benefits package has been hijacked by a number of factors that are a concern.