President Ruto urges parents to register children under Taifa Care in January
By Maureen Kinyanjui |
The Taifa Care programme, which aims to offer an inclusive, efficient, and transparent healthcare service, has already made significant strides.
President William Ruto has called on parents to accompany their children and register them under the Taifa Care health programme when schools reopen in January 2025.
The move aimed at providing universal healthcare access is part of a broader push to ensure that every student in Kenya is covered under the national health scheme.
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"Come January, when our schools resume, we want all parents to accompany their children and register them under Taifa Care," Ruto said during his speech at the 61st Jamhuri Day celebrations on Thursday in Nairobi.
The Taifa Care programme, which aims to offer an inclusive, efficient, and transparent healthcare service, has already made significant strides.
The President revealed that in just two months, 11 million previously uninsured Kenyans have gained access to healthcare services.
"We have successfully transitioned 5.6 million citizens from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and registered 11 million Kenyans under the Social Health Insurance Fund," Ruto said, highlighting the programme's rapid growth and expansion.
The President praised counties like Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Bomet, Embu, and Lamu, which have led the charge in registering citizens under the programme.
He also encouraged residents in counties such as Marsabit, Garissa, Mandera, West Pokot, and Turkana to take part in the registration and benefit from the transformative healthcare initiative.
"Taifa Care ensures healthcare access for all registered citizens without discrimination of any kind," Ruto explained.
He further said that the programme had accurately determined the cost of healthcare services and products, ring-fenced resources for facility improvements, and leveraged digital technology to improve healthcare delivery.
Under this programme, Kenya aims to provide high-quality healthcare that is efficient, affordable, and sustainable.
The President also expressed confidence that the registration numbers will surpass the 16.5 million citizens already covered.
"No public service delivery project of this scale and ambition has ever been undertaken in the history of our country," he added.
The transition from NHIF to SHIF has been met with heavy contention from Kenyans as the government has been at pains to explain how patients will access healthcare services and how a high monthly deduction will be made to the new health fund.
Questions remain unanswered about the criteria that will be used to assess how informal sector households will be banded to determine their annual contributions to the health fund as all employed Kenyans will remit 2.75 per cent of their monthly pay to the scheme.
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