Kenya to provide free health care

Patients currently share the costs of treatment

The Kenyan government has announced that it will provide free services in its pharmacies and health centres for poor Kenyans from next week.

Health Minister Charity Ngilu said the decision was in keeping with a 2002 election pledge to provide free basic medical help for those unable to pay.

The scheme will cover nearly a third of the population, some 9m people, who cannot afford to pay for treatment.

The BBC's Muliro Telewa describes the move as a major policy reversal.

More than half of Kenya's 30 million population live on less than a dollar a day.

The government introduced free primary school education after they came into office, but has struggled to come up with enough funds to make its introduction successful.

Costs

In her announcement, Mrs Ngilu said the government has already set aside nearly $50m in this year's budget for the implementation of the scheme.

Money is tight in public institutions

Kenyans will have to pay a small registration fee each time they visit. They will also still have to pay for treatment at larger hospitals.

Kenyan patients at Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi told the BBC that they were excited about the free medical scheme but had some reservations about how it would work in practice.

In the 1990s, the government introduced a cost-sharing policy where patients were expected to meet part of the cost of treatment at public hospitals.

The scheme was introduced in order to help health institutions raise money for maintenance.

By then the situation in the hospital was so bad that patients were forced to bring their own linen, food and cutlery.