Healthcare stakeholders illustration.
Over the past few years, Kenya has taken significant steps
toward strengthening its surveillance, pandemic preparedness, and response
(S-PPR) systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call for many
countries, including Kenya, revealing both strengths and deep-rooted
vulnerabilities in public health infrastructure and emergency response.
A study by the African Institute for Development Policy
(AFIDEP) finds that Kenya has made commendable progress in integrating S-PPR
into its strategic health documents.
The Ministry of
Health Strategic Plan (2023–2027) and the National Public Health Institute
Strategic Plan (2022–2026) both emphasise robust surveillance systems,
cross-sectoral coordination, and capacity development.
Event-based surveillance (EBS) systems played a vital role
during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling rapid detection and response.
However, these advancements are undercut by persistent
weaknesses.
The budget allocated to health in Kenya has persistently
fallen below the 15% target set by the Abuja Declaration, with only 9.7% of the
national budget allocated to health in FY2023/24.
Within this budget, pandemic preparedness receives a
disproportionately small share. Allocations for disease surveillance and
pandemic response also dropped significantly, from around 22% of the health
budget in FY2021/22 due to COVID-19 intervention to less than 1% in subsequent
years.
A heavy reliance on external donors further complicates the
situation. Between 2016 and 2019, external support for surveillance programmes
rose from 54.4% to 90.2%, while domestic public spending on the same dropped
sharply, from 32.4% to 0.8%.
This dependency puts Kenya in a vulnerable position,
particularly as global funding shifts.
There are also glaring financing gaps.
Kenya requires
approximately $4.35 per capita annually to maintain core S-PPR functions, yet
the country falls short of this benchmark.
An estimated $40–50 million initial funding gap exists, with
ongoing annual shortfalls between $20–30 million, affecting investments in
surveillance technology, emergency stockpiles, and health workforce training.
Only 60% of counties have adequate diagnostic facilities.
The limited
availability of essential laboratory infrastructure, diagnostic tools, and
skilled personnel hinders the country’s ability to identify and respond to
health threats promptly.
To address the challenges highlighted, strategic actions are
necessary.
First, the country should establish a legal framework
through a Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act, which would empower the Kenya
National Public Health Institute (KNPHI) to lead the coordination and
implementation of surveillance and pandemic preparedness efforts.
There is also a dire need to establish a National Pandemic
Preparedness Fund, managed at the Central Bank.
The fund will be used to collect resources raised from
various sources, including domestic revenue, donor funding, and a health security
levy imposed on excisable goods such as tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks.
In addition, the
government needs to increase budget allocations, suggesting that 1–2% of the
overall health budget be specifically dedicated to pandemic preparedness and
response functions.
Infrastructure and workforce development are also key. We
must scale up the electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response
(e-IDSR) system, expand training opportunities for epidemiologists, and deploy
mobile diagnostic units across counties to enhance early detection
capabilities.
To ensure financial accountability, the country needs to
centralise and streamline resource use under a unified PPR Resource Pool,
accompanied by the establishment of a National S-PPR Resource Efficiency Framework
to track performance and enhance the impact of funding.
Finally, we should integrate surveillance and pandemic
preparedness into long-term health sector planning.
This integration ensures that preparedness is treated not as
a temporary project but as a core investment aligned with Kenya’s universal
health coverage (UHC) goals.
Kenya is not short of systems, strategies, and partnerships,
but without sustainable financing, centralised coordination, and domestic
ownership, the country remains vulnerable to future pandemics.
We must have a timely and evidence-informed roadmap for
action for policymakers to act on. Indeed, investing in pandemic preparedness
is a national security imperative.
Derick Ngaira is a Communications Officer at the African Institute for Development Policy. [email protected]
