The National government and county governments have agreed to jointly support community health workers in recognition of the critical role they play in advancing Universal Health Coverage.
President William Ruto said on Tuesday the community health workers, who will now be known as community health promoters, will be co-sponsored by the two levels of government even as health remains a devolved function.
"We have agreed with the county governments that we need to standardise the remuneration of these community health promoters and we need also to standardise the kits that will be made available for them to use in the service that they will be undertaking in every village," Ruto said.
The president said the kits will be made available to all the 90,000 community health promoters under a soon-to-be-launched programme.
"We are already preparing for the delivery of the kits," Ruto said.
The President was speaking on Monday when he met with governors at State House, Nairobi, during the flag-off of 20,620 medical oxygen cylinders to be distributed in all the Counties.
He called on the county bosses to identify other stakeholders to support Primary Care Units at the Ward Level.
He said 315 primary care units have been identified in every county for the provision of health care services at the ward level.
Ruto said the additional team will complement the work that is currently being done by sub-county health committees.
It will comprise representatives from facilities run by faith-based institutions, the private sector and community representatives.
"The counties will provide a forum where the community can elect a person who is going to be in that committee," Ruto said.
He said development partners such as Amref and Global Fund can also provide a representative to the health committee to help drive the UHC agenda to its full realization.
Further, the president said the Kenya Human Resource Advisory Council will be inaugurated to deal with the challenges that counties have been having with health workers.
He said County governments have been mandated to provide membership to the council's board to address existing or future challenges.
"Whether it is challenging to do with coordination between the national and county governments, whether is challenges of personnel, doctors who are going on study leave... in a way that gives everyone a chance around a table," Ruto said.
The development comes even as health workers in 12 counties prepare to down tools from Wednesday over non-payment of salaries and non-remittance of statutory deductions.
