A Case Study on the Application of Human Rights Principles in Health Policy Making and Programming in Cherang any Sub County in Kenya

This study examined the application of human rights principles in health policymaking and programming in Cherang’any sub-county. This sub-county has suffered from long standing discrimination and exclusion from the progressive realization of the right to health. Its residents continue to live on less than USD 1 a day. Under the burden of income and redistribution inequality and inequity, they lack readily and easily available, accessible, acceptable and quality healthcare and health systems. This has been as a result of failure by the national government to include them in participating towards the formulation and making of health policy and towards the implementation of health programmes at the sub-county level which reflects the type of healthcare the residents require following basic healthcare. Further, the lack of financial and administrative accountability, along with the lack of governance transparency in the provision of healthcare towards the residents of the sub-county, has in turn affected the health rights, opportunities and healthcare advancements available to them. Lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity, tarmac road networks, equipped medical facilities, water and lack of the means of transportation have further exacerbated the violation of their right to health. Accordingly, with the promulgation of the Kenyan Constitution in 2010 which seeks to advance socio and economic rights, the government committed to provide every citizen with the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to healthcare services including reproductive healthcare. In furtherance of this commitment, the government in 2013 developed its Kenya Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan (KHSSPI) in order to entrench human rights principles in health policymaking and programming. This plan requires that healthcare be improved within the context of the human rights principles of accessibility, availability, affordability and quality of healthcare along with health financing, and participation of minorities. This study examined the extent to which these principles in health policymaking and programming have been applied in Chereng’any.

Author(s): Laila Abdul Latif, Faith Simiyu and Attiya Waris

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