Nairobi — Kenya and the United States have signed a Health Framework of Cooperation aimed at deepening collaboration in public health, research, and healthcare delivery.
Speaking at signing ceremony in Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the framework aligns with the America First Global Health Strategy (Sept 2025), which emphasises efficiency, reducing dependency, stronger bilateral agreements, and promoting American and Kenyan shared interests.
Rubio said the new model replaces fragmented donor-led arrangements with a Government-to-Government (G2G) funding approach focusing on sustainability and accountability.
"We are not going to spend billions of dollars funding the NGO industrial complex while close and important partners like Kenya either have no role to play or have very little influence over how healthcare money is being spent."
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"We hope to sign many of these in the days to come. But the first one we're going is with Kenya. And the reason why is twofold. Number one, because of our close partnership. Number two, they have they have stable and strong institutions both in government and in the healthcare sector. And over the next few years, we're going to we're going to be investing $1.6 billion uh in health assistance over the next five years," the US Secretary of State said.
The US Government intends to invest 1.6 billion US Dollars over the next 5 years. The US Govt contributions are conditional upon an annual increase in both the National and County health budgets.
The agreed schedule is as follows: Ksh10 billion in FY 2026/27, Ksh20 billion in FY 2027/28, Ksh35 billion in FY 2028/29, and KSh50 billion in FY 2029/30.
The Government of Kenya will be expected to gradually take over US Government-funded Health Commodities and Human Resources for health by 2031, totalling 141 Million USD.
The framework will guide bilateral collaboration to eliminate HIV, TB, Malaria and emerging infectious diseases.
It will also aid in building a resilient, integrated Kenyan public health system with a strong emergency preparedness component, transition to sustainable and locally owned health systems, with Kenya assuming greater financial and operational responsibility by 2030 and strengthen strategic diplomatic, scientific, and economic partnerships between Kenya and the United States.
These specific co-financing commitments are required for Human Resources for Health and strategic health commodities currently funded by the US Government.
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