Tamatisha TB: Why County Budgets Must Stop Undervaluing A Preventable Killer

In a region grappling with high disease burdens and overstretched health systems, tuberculosis (TB) continues to thrive in silence, stealing lives, livelihoods, and dignity.

At the recent Tamatisha TB Budget Advocacy Forum held at Royal City Hotel in Kisumu County, the message was unmistakable: unless counties prioritize TB in their 2025 2026 budgets, we will continue to bury people not because we lack solutions but because we lack the will.

The forum, supported by the Centre for Health Solutions (CHS) through “Stop TB Partnership Kenya”, brought together 21 participants.

These included Members of County Assemblies (MCA’s) drawn from Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, and Migori, County TB Coordinators, civil society organizations, media representatives, and TB champions.

“It aimed to assess the current TB situation, identify budgetary opportunities, and strengthen multi-sectoral collaboration to end TB at the county level.”

What emerged from the discussions was a sobering picture of how deeply under-resourced our TB response remains.

In health facilities across our counties, there are chronic shortages of staff, with many high-burden clinics operating without the necessary personnel to test, diagnose, and follow up with TB clients.

Essential diagnostic tools are either unavailable or concentrated in urban centres.

Digital X-ray machines and GeneXpert diagnostic equipment, vital for timely and accurate TB detection, are too few and far between, especially in rural and marginalized areas.

Even when TB is diagnosed, access to treatment is not always guaranteed.

Many facilities experience frequent drug stockouts, leaving patients vulnerable to treatment interruptions that risk drug resistance and worsen outcomes.

The transport of sputum samples from remote areas to testing hubs is often delayed or unreliable, increasing the turnaround time for results and losing patients along the way.

Our communities also suffer from a glaring lack of awareness.

Many people, especially women, youth, and mobile populations, are unaware of TB symptoms, the availability of free treatment, or where to seek help.

In some counties, there are no designated TB isolation units even at referral hospitals, forcing TB patients to share wards with others and raising the risk of transmission.

And perhaps most urgently, we continue to rely heavily on donor funding to keep our TB programs afloat.

“There is little to no domestic allocation for TB in many county budgets. This overreliance on external support is dangerous and unsustainable. Donors may leave but TB will not.”

But amid these grim realities, there was also hope, hope captured powerfully by TB champion Sharon Obilo.

Standing before decision-makers, she shared her personal story not just as an advocate, but as someone whose younger sibling is currently undergoing TB treatment.

“Donor support has helped us survive,” Sharon said.

“But survival is not enough. We must thrive. County budgets must reflect the urgency of TB. When counties allocate funds to TB they are not spending. They are investing in healthy families, in productivity, and in the dignity of life,” she emphasized.

Her words rang clear and true.

“TB is not a faraway problem. It is here with us, affecting our children, our workers, and our families. It is robbing us in our prime, in reproductive age, especially among men, who are the least likely to seek care early and the most likely to die silently.”

The way forward is simple but urgent.

“We must treat TB as a priority, not an afterthought. Counties must budget for TB diagnostic equipment and isolation wards.”

They must hire more frontline health workers and pay community health promoters who do the hard work of going door to door to identify missing cases.

Awareness campaigns must be funded to reach those who are left behind.

And above all, domestic resources must be mobilized now, not later, to secure the sustainability of our TB response.

To our MCAs and budget decision-makers: this is your moment.

Invite TB survivors and champions to your public participation forums. Listen to their experiences.

And when you sit down to allocate funds for health, remember the cost of inaction is not just economic, it is human.

“Let the Tamatisha Forum mark not just another meeting but the beginning of a bold new era where county governments take ownership, invest with urgency, and act with compassion.”

TB can be defeated but only if we choose to fund the fight.

We, the champions, are ready to play our part. We ask you to play yours.

Fund TB. Equip our clinics.Protect our communities.

And together let us make missing TB cases and TB deaths a thing of the past.

The writer is a grassroots TB and HIV campaigner, the team leader at the Nelson Mandela TB and HIV Information Community Based Organization (CBO) in Kisumu County, and the vice chairperson of the Network of TB Champions Kenya.