Kitui County has set aside Sh 300 million to revamp its strained healthcare system that witnessed a slump during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The funding, which is projected to be injected into the system during the 2021/2022 financial year, will upgrade the sluggish uptake of Kitui County Health Insurance Cover (KCHIC).
The rolling of the county health cover will complement services offered by National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) on a fifty-fifty cost-shared basis.
In the arrangement, the county will remit Sh 3,000 and in return each household will part with Sh 3,000 in a bid to be enrolled in the programme annually.
On Thursday, Kitui County Governor Charity Ngilu expressed optimism saying that the programme will improve access to affordable quality healthcare among vulnerable households.
“This will be a great upgrade from the already existing healthcare cover KCHIC, since the residents will access affordable healthcare services in facilities across the country, as opposed to the current plan, where residents access healthcare services in Kitui County Referral Hospital,” said Ngilu.
The registration exercise is expected to begin at the start of the next financial year in the whole County. Kitui County has a total of 262,000 households.
Separately, Governor Ngilu has waded into the murky waters of the ongoing Chief Justice interviews saying time is ripe for female CJ.
“There could never be a better moment to have The First Woman Chief Justice in this country than right now when we are in the process of filling the position of the head of one of the three arms of government,” said the Governor.
She pointed out that already the other two arms of government namely, the Executive and the Legislature are both headed and deputized by men.
“Since the promulgation of the 2010 constitution, the trend has been to have women deputize men as Chief Justice. It’s now time to have a woman leading the judicial arm of government,” noted Ngilu.
Even as we head towards transition next year, Ngilu called on the country’s power elites to avoid excluding women from the high table conversations that shape the future of the country.
“We must always remember that Women form more than 52% of the total population of Kenya. No wonder this country cannot develop with 48% making all the important decisions sometimes convoluted and not real people driven,” she said.
The Governor said that having women at the high table must not be an afterthought, a favour or an act of magnanimity and tokenism, “It must be an active ingredient in crafting the development framework of this nation.”
As Desmond Tutu once said: “If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women,” said Ngilu.
By Yobesh Onwong’a
