Nairobi, KENYA 27 June 2018 – His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta today Presided over the launch of Accelerated Immunization Outreach campaign to promote the health and well-being of the Kenyan children.
The objective of the immunization programme is to guide in the provision of quality immunization services by improving access to and utilization of immunization in all the 47 Counties in Kenya and to reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases.
During the event the president who was accompanied by the Cabinet Secretary for Health Sicily Kariuki and the Principal Secretary Eng. Peter Tum presided over the national launch of the specialized maternal, Child health and immunization equipment and the official send off of Cuban specialist doctors to counties.
Speaking at the event the CS for Health commended the President for identifying the attainment of Universal Health Coverage as one of the ‘Big Four’ agenda that will spearhead Kenya’s development over the next five years.
She noted that the country has made significant progress in terms of key health outcome initiatives under the leadership of Jubilee administration. “Maternal mortality has reduced significantly from 488 per 100,000 live births in 2009 to 216 per 100,000 live births in 2015. And the infant mortality has reduced from 52 per 1,000 live births in 2009 to 30.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016,” the CS said.
She also noted that through the ‘Linda Mama’ program, over 1 million mothers have access to child delivery services at health facilities.
The immunization coverage has remained stable over the years at 80%. In 2016, the national coverage stood at 81%, slightly below the national target of 90%. At least 40% of counties had coverage of 80% and above. The immunization coverage in 3 counties of Kiambu, Isiolo, Turkana was above 100% probably due to influx of population from other countries/ counties. However the majority (57%) of counties had immunization coverage between the 50-79% with of Mandera (37%), Wajir (55%), Nandi (61%) recording the lowest coverage.
His Excellency launched a series of activities to renew the Government commitment to immunization and the Universal Healthcare Coverage Agenda and toaccelerate efforts to improve the coverage, reaching the underserved populations and sustaining the same.
The national immunization services in Kenya are managed by the Ministry of Health through the National Vaccines and Immunization Program (NVIP). The programme is now focusing on reducing dropout rates and missed opportunities, replacing inadequate and aging cold chain equipment, introducing new vaccines to accelerate attainment of Universal Health Coverage, in the face of other competing child survival activities.