Question 1
The political climate in Kenya is majorly shaped by the domestic tensions that have occurred in the past. The climate is also determined by the contestation that has resulted from the high corruption levels and abuse and centralization of the political power. The long process of reviewing the constitution in the country as well as the post-election violence have set the political climate. With an approved new constitution, the country is relatively peaceful as well as transiting from all the political crisis in the past. The political climate in Kenya has affected the gender equality in terms of the representation of women in the country’s leadership. For instance, despite the approval of the 2010 constitution, the country recorded the lowest incidence of representation in the Eastern Africa region with women comprising of only 15% (Interactions).
Kenya’s leadership demonstrates a credible commitment to the improvement of health services because of their contributions largely to policy making and their subsequent implementation in the country. The country’s leadership understands the political dimensions involved in making the healthcare policies to ensure that they provide the discussion backdrop before introducing any politics to reform the health care sector.
Question 2
Kenya has several constraints on their ability to provide health services. Firstly, there are gaps that have been identified in the function capacity to care for patients. For instance, many health care facilities in the country have been reported to provide a given service despite the lack of a full capacity to offer the service due to lack of functional equipment or insufficient medication stock. The facilities that offer antenatal care, for example, have been reported as 89% while only 12% have the full functional capacity (IHME and AAH). Secondly, most of the facilities have deficiencies in their physical capacity. Of all the health care facilities, 11% of public health care centers and 15% of public dispensaries are not connected to the national power supply grid (IHME and AAH). On the other hand, most of the health care facilities, outside the national and provincial hospitals, do not have transportation for emergency cases.
Thirdly, the country is financially bound in making policies regarding employee remuneration where doctors and nurses often go on strikes affecting the health care sector. Finally, the country has constraints in their capacity for disease-specific management where the capacity to treat malaria, HIVAIDS, and lower respiratory infections decline with the levels of health care in the public sector.
Question 3
The Kenyan government has in the past recognized the seriousness of HIV/AIDS prompting the creation of policy initiatives to deal with the epidemic at a higher capacity. The main measures that the government has taken is the establishment of a national committee to deal with the disease as well as the making of strategic plans to combat the disease. The Kenyan government has identified five main goals that increase their capacity and ability to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. First, the government has initiated campaigns that spread information regarding the methods to fight the disease (Nyaga et al. 29). Second, the government has sensitized the health care providers to prevent the transmission of the disease by ensuring that all the blood is effectively screened. Third, the government has provided facilities to health care providers to ensure that they prevent the perinatal transmissions of the disease. Fourth, the government has established free health care, social support, and counseling of the infected patients. Finally, there is a national mobilization and coordination of the national funds that help in coping with the disease.
The government of Kenya also recognized AIDS as one of its development issues by incorporating it in the several policy documents such as the 7th national development plans as well as in the 5th district development strategy (Nyaga et al. 29). The step increased the country’s capacity by increasing the donor funding. Moreover, the country has been able to mobilize resources enabling better financial control making it possible to treat the opportunistic diseases that are related to the HIV/AIDS. Apart from the support from the World Bank among other bilateral donors, the country’s capacity to fight HIV/AIDS has been increased by support from non-governmental organizations.
Question 4
There are several non-governmental and international agencies involved in national responses to HIV/AIDS. The African Medical Research Foundation has a management team comprised of 15 members. It offers interventions such as VCT and PMTCT projects, HIV prevention in the areas where the members earn low incomes, as well as ARV distributed projects. The priorities of AMREF include providing support to the patients affected by AIDS as well as empowering the communities to take control of their lives (UNAIDS 11).
The Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium is an organization that has 27 members. Its main interventions include preventing AIDS transmission from mother-to-child, facilitating the development project of HIV transmission, as well as offering physiological support in different regions. The organization boosts the supply of ARVs for free as well as providing free viral load tests (UNAIDS 15).
The Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA) is a resource center located in Pangani and has 7 drop-in centers. The organization advocates for the rights of women living with AIDS, provides care, support, and prevention services, offers training on home-based care, as well as providing hospital visits. KENWA prioritizes the universal access to free ARVs as well as supports the universal access to support treatment and care (UNAIDS 16).
Question 5
The non-governmental and international agencies involved in national responses to HIV/AIDS effectively supplement the national health systems. The organizations play an inevitable and irreplaceable role in revamping the regulations affiliated with the social organizations. For instance, while the government has been unable to deal with the high risk and invisible group of sex workers, the non-governmental organizations reach out to the group and prevent the spread of the disease. As such, the organizations do not interfere with the work of the government. In any case, the organizations help the government reach their prospective goal by mobilizing all its institutes to fight HIV/AIDS. However, the Kenyan government should make the best use of the NGOs by clarifying their legal status, legitimate rights, and duties. The government should also improve on the ways that the NGOs give feedback information in relation to the developed policies to ensure that the fight against HIV/AIDS is effective. Finally, to help the NGOs deliver their services better, the Kenyan government should employ tax remit measures to help fund the social schemes by the NGOs to fight AIDS.
Question 6
The Kenyan government is genuinely committed to addressing HIV/AIDS. The government constantly allocates additional funds to the national response to the AIDS scourge. Despite the scarcity of resources in Kenya, the government ensures that their commitment to the AIDS response does not waver. Moreover, Kenya is known for its home-grown and innovative approach that ensures increased testing and counseling services, campaigning for medical supervision during circumcision, as well as improved maternity services. The genuine commitment of the Kenyan government is also evident from their collaboration with other stakeholders such as the World Bank and NGOs operating in the country. Moreover, HIV prevalence in Kenya has dropped from 7.2% in the year 2007 to 5.6% five years later indicating the results of the government’s genuine commitment to fighting the epidemic (Johnson). The Kenyan leaders are also alert to avoid complacency in their fight against AIDS. Otherwise, the country’s economic growth would be affected.
Works Cited
Interactions. “Social, economic, and political context in Kenya”. Institute of Development Studies, n.d. http://interactions.eldis.org/unpaid-care-work/country-profiles/kenya/social-economic-and-political-context-kenya. Accessed 14 January 2017.
Johnson, Casey. “Kenya sees drop in HIV prevalence”. IRIN News, 16 Sept. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/news/2013/09/16/kenya-sees-drop-hiv-prevalence
Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Organizations Working in Kenya to Address HIV and AIDS in Women." UNAIDS and The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, 2006. Retrieved from http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2006/20060630_gcwa_re_directory_women_aids_kenya_en.pdf
Nyaga, Robert K., Diana Njeri Kimani, Germano Mwabu, and Mwangi S. Kimenyi. "HIV/AIDS in Kenya: A review of research and policy issues." KIPPRA Discussion Paper No. 38. The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), 2004. Retrieved from http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnads077.pdf
