Running head: HEALTHCARE IN KENYA

Healthcare in Kenya

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Institutional Affiliation
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Healthcare in Kenya

The population of Kenya is estimated to be 45 million where 75% live in rural areas.

About 46% of this population is lives below the poverty line. The main source of employment in

the country is agriculture that accounts for 32% of employment while 23.7% are formally

employed, the rest work in the informal sector commonly referred to as Jua Kali. The ten main

causes of death in Kenya include HIV, lower respiratory tract infection, heart disease, road

accidents and violence (Burton et al., 2016). Life expectancy in Kenya at birth is 62 years and

the maternal mortality rate is 362 per 100000 births.

The healthcare system of Kenya defines six levels of care that include; community

services, dispensaries and clinics, health centers and maternity, sub-county hospitals, level 5 and

county referral hospitals, lastly national referral hospitals mostly teaching hospitals (Taffa,

Chepngeno, and Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, 2005). The capacity of the facilities rises as the hospital

rises the ladder with community services offering basic healthcare to the particular community.

While the national referral hospitals deal with complex healthcare.

Over the last decade, Kenya has made considerable improvements in major health

indicators. The objective of the Kenyan government is to attain universal health care for crucial

services that comprise of neonatal, maternal and child health care services. Those priorities are

outlined in the 2016/2017 budget. Primary healthcare is referred to be pro-poor especially in

rural areas. The rate of neonatal death is more in women under the age of 20 years than in those

above that age. Among the educated people the possibility of losing a child at birth is lower. In

rural areas there a lower rate of delivery by a skilled attendant. While the coverage of

immunization is 70% with urban areas having a higher rate.

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References

Burton, D. C., Flannery, B., Onyango, B., Larson, C., Alaii, J., Zhang, X., ... & Feikin, D. R.

(2011). Healthcare-seeking behaviour for common infectious disease-related illnesses in rural

Kenya: a community-based house-to-house survey. Journal of health, population, and

nutrition, 29(1), 61.

Taffa, N., Chepngeno, G., & Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, M. (2005). Child morbidity and healthcare

utilization in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, 51(5), 279-284.