The US government has in the last three years injected Sh670 million in Kitui county to fight mother-to-child HIV transmission, TB and Covid-19.
US CDC-Kenya deputy director Dr Jennifer Galbraith said on Thursday that most of the funds came from the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
“In the last three US fiscal years, CDC has supported Kitui county with $6.4 million (Sh670 million) most of it being in the PEFAR programme and global health security,” she said.
Dr Galbraith spoke when she met Kitui Governor Julius Malombe in his office. She was accompanied by partners from CIHEB Kenya, LVCT and CHAK.
She said starting January this year, CDC started funding Kitui directly.
"For the first time in January 2023, we started funding Kitui county directly with $110,000, which is about Sh13 million,” Dr Galbraith said.
She said the US Center for Disease Control's partnership with Kitui seeks to prevent, detect and respond to disease threats in the county.
“We want to make sure that everyone living with HIV is aware of their diagnoses. That those living with HIV are on life saving treatment,” Dr Galbraith said.
She said that at the height of Covid-19 the US CDC put into Kitui $30,000 for screening and emergency operations.
Malombe pledged that financial support from the US CDC would be utilised in a transparent and accountable way.
“There is a special account where the money for the programme goes and it is properly accounted for,” he said.
The governor said his government is keen on disease prevention, especially mother-to-child HIV transmission.
“We want to prevent people from contracting Covid-19 and TB. TB is very much around us. And we want to prevent people from contracting disease,” the governor said.
Malombe said his administration was looking for ways to reinstate community health volunteers whose services had previously been terminated.
“We are glad to report that the national government will match the county government for every amount of money we spend on paying or compensating community health volunteers,” he said.
