Kenya’s health sector is at risk of collapse if donor funding cuts persist and lessons from COVID-19 remain unimplemented. This is according to Dr. Willis Akhwale, a public health expert and Special Adviser for the Kenya End Malaria Council.
Speaking yesterday at a meeting convened by the Kenya Editors Guild, which focused on the impact of Official Development Assistance (ODA) cuts on health and development in Africa, Dr. Akhwale said funding cuts from key partners, especially the United States, have already triggered layoffs of top health professionals, disrupted supply chains, and threatened the delivery of essential services.
“Many organizations that had employed some of the best players in the health sector had to lay those people off. Now they are out of a job when they should be contributing to the development of this country,” said Dr. Akhwale.
The impact of reduced funding, he added, goes beyond the health workforce. Related industries, including hospitality and aviation, are also experiencing a drop in activity due to fewer health sector conferences and events. But the bigger concern, he said, is that medical stockouts are becoming more common.
“Once you interrupt the supply chain, because there’s no money or a global disruption, by the time you get commodities to the communities, it could take more than a year.”
He used the example of Kenya’s effort to establish the Kenya BioVaccines Institute during COVID-19. While the country pushed for local vaccine production, he said the biggest challenge wasn’t the technology, but the absence of a reliable market.
According to Dr. Akhwale, regional collaboration is key to sustaining such manufacturing efforts. Without a continental market strategy, he warned, African countries risk making investments that won’t deliver public health returns.
He also revisited the oxygen crisis during the pandemic, saying it revealed just how unprepared many health facilities were to deliver basic emergency services.
“Oxygen became critical, but many facilities didn’t even have the production capacity. We didn’t have policy guidelines on how to deliver it.”
His other concern was whether the Kenyan health system is prepared to adapt to financial shocks and policy shifts in global health financing.
He urged policymakers to act on lessons already learned, warning that the next crisis will be harder to manage if supply systems remain weak, local production remains unsupported, and public health workers remain sidelined.
