The County Assembly of Kisumu now wants residents to consistently contribute to the Social Health Authority (SHA) fund to enable it to fully fund Reproductive Health Services (RHS ) effectively.
Hon. Seth Okumu, a Member of the County Assembly for (MCA) East Seme and a member of the health committee, has said that its budgetary allocations have been hard hit by donor withdrawal in funding some aspects of the health sector.
However, Okumu said the issue has been taken over by the relevant sectoral committee for discussion on the way forward.
The committees are at the moment scrutinizing budget proposals for all departments.
“USAID and other partners used to fund a huge chunk of the health sector across counties, including RHS. This has since been frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump,” Okumu noted.
The MCA added that every woman has a right to access affordable, and if not, free family planning commodities.
The county legislators have already hinted that it will incorporate RHS in its supplementary budget.
However, it has since emerged that vulnerable women cannot afford family planning commodities such as Intrauterine Devices (IUD), and Norplant at government health facilities across Kisumu County.
This revelation has been made by the Community Empowerment and Media Initiative (CEMI-K), a community-based organisation which is at the forefront of advocating and sensitizing women on the importance of contraception.
CEMI-K Chairperson Selfina Atieno has called on county governments to factor in maternal health care.
Ms Atieno stressed that many women cannot afford postnatal and antenatal services since they are very expensive.
On his part, the Executive Director of CEMI, Bernard Okebe, concurs by saying that there is a significant gap in Kisumu County’s budget estimates for the financial year 2025/2026.
“On the levies charged on reproductive health commodities, especially the IUDs and the Norplant.”
Mr Okebe is urging the lawmakers to consider amending, or better still, expunge the levies from the document to ease accessibility.
“During our sensitisation meetings with the community, across Kisumu County, we have encountered a large number of women who say they cannot afford the commodities whose charges vary from one facility to the other,” he explains.
