Advocating for public healthcare services in Kenya: GI-ESCR organises a series of community workshops with PHM Kenya

In April 2022, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published a report denouncing widespread inequalities in accessing healthcare services in Kenya, with a focus on urban informal settlements in Nairobi. The report received attention in the media and a press conference was organised including major civil society actors and journalists.

This was not the end of the story. Long-term strategies are needed to build meaningful participation of civil society and communities in policy-making to achieve change in health policies in Kenya. To this end, GI-ESCR is continuing to build on the findings of the report to call for stronger public healthcare services in Kenya and revert the commercialisation of healthcare services in the country.

Joining forces with People’s Health Movement Kenya, GI-ESCR has returned to the informal settlements where the research was undertaken, meeting again the individuals that were interviewed in the reports as well as reaching out to others in communities. The objective is not only to disseminate the findings of the report and raise awareness on access to healthcare as a right but also to learn from communities to build participatory, collective strategies to achieve change.

The first community workshop was organised in the informal settlement of Mathare, Nairobi on 20 May 2022, and had 40 people, including disabled individuals, women and chronically ill persons. Ashina Mtsumi, Programme Officer and Africa Representative at GI-ESCR, presented the findings of the report, and stressed the importance of holding leaders accountable to its recommendations.

The second was organised on 3 June 2022 in the informal settlement of Mukuru. The next will be organised in July 2022 in Dandora.