Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has said that National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) will deliver the 12 million Kenyans target in the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme.
Speaking on Wednesday, Kindiki said he is confident that no other state machinery can execute the task more efficiently compared to NGAO.
"We have a national reach from Nairobi, the headquarters to regions all the way to the villages. We have approximately 106,000 Village Elders, over 9,000 Assistant Chiefs and about 4,000 Chiefs… there is no other Government machinery that can deliver the UHC efficiently, fast, effectively and at minimal cost," he said.
Data from the Ministry of Interior shows that Kenya is divided into eight regions; 47 counties, 389 subcounties, 989 divisions, 3,999 locations and 9,104 sublocations.
The Interior CS spoke during a collaborative meeting on UHC between his ministry and that of Health.
Present at the meeting were Health CS Deborah Barasa, senior staff from the ministry and senior NGAO officials.
Kindiki said is also confident the NGAO team will deliver, just as it did during the farmer registration drive, to facilitate distribution of subsidised fertiliser.
The CS assured his Health counterpart Deborah Barasa that the 12 million Kenyans target will be met in a very short time.
"I am persuaded Just like we supported and delivered in the registration of farmers for the subsidised fertiliser programme where we enrolled over 6.5 million farmers in record time and saved the country shillings of billion proposed by consultants, we will deliver in the UHC registration in record time and at minimal cost to the government of Kenya," Kindiki said.
He noted that the exercise will be undertaken in collaboration with officials of the Ministry of Health, especially the Community Health Promoters (CPHs).
The Interior CS insisted that all they require from the Ministry of Health deliberations is simplified messages that can be easily understood by people in the villages.
"What we require from this meeting is very simplified information which can be consumed by the person at the grassroots."
Kindiki said that he is very confident that this time around, the programme will succeed after failure to roll it out by the last two administrations.
He added that the work of the National Government Administration officers is to support the government agenda at the grassroots across all functions of government.
According to CS Barasa all the work that has been put into this programme will be meaningless if people at the grassroots don't know about them.
She said it is the reason the Health ministry is tapping into the expertise of the NGAO officers.
"The reason we are here today is because of the tremendous experience, good connections, the prompt sensitisation you have been able to do at the community level.
"We really need your expertise. We need to leverage on your platform to sensitise and inform the community on the benefits, and register to get affordable and quality healthcare," Barasa said.
