Nairobi — Members of Parliament, leading medical specialists and a consortium of health NGOs have delivered a damning assessment of Kenya's devolved health system, warning that maternal deaths are rising due to chronic drug shortages, negligence, collapsing infrastructure and misplaced county priorities.
Speaking during a health policy forum in Nairobi titled "Legislating to Save Lives: Strengthening the Legal Framework for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Kenya," organized by the Health NGOs Network (HENNET), they recounted harrowing accounts of abandoned facilities, deadly medication gaps and mothers left to labour without care.
The leaders warned that Kenyan mothers are dying from preventable complications, a consequence of systemic neglect, corruption and dangerous indifference within the country's healthcare system.
Samburu Woman Representative Pauline Lenguris decried collapsing devolved healthcare system that she said is condemning mothers and newborns to preventable deaths.
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According to her, county hospitals remain critically understaffed, poorly equipped and devoid of essential supplies from basic gloves to life-saving drugs and blood.
The Samburu Woman Representative argued that maternal care was more reliable before devolution, when it was managed by the national government.
"There are no roads even to help them transfer patients to the next facility. There are no drugs. You can even miss gloves in county hospitals right now. We are really in a mess," she lamented.
Lenguris, who sits on the National Assembly's Departmental Committee on Health, accused governors of diverting health budgets to flashy infrastructure projects at the expense of drugs, staffing and functional equipment.
"Governors receive billions because health is devolved, but they divert the money meant for health to put up big structures which, when you go there, are not even equipped. You enter these hospitals and find nothing," she said.
Lenguris further criticised the appointment of non-technical individuals to senior leadership in the Ministry of Health, like Cabinet Secretary as well as Principal Secretary, arguing that political patronage is worsening health outcomes.
"The health docket should be given to professionals, people who understand what is supposed to be done. But you bring someone who has no information about health," she said.
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