Lodwar- April 15, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)

The Department of Health and Sanitation has concluded a two-day User Acceptance Testing (UAT) assessment activity sampling 120 households within two community units in Turkana Central sub-county- St Patrick’s Community Unit in Kanamkemer and Nakoret Community unit in Kerio.

Targeted for the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) in Turkana Central, this is part of the ongoing efforts to intensify the upcoming round of the SMC campaign across the county.

The UAT assessment for SMC implementation in electronic-Community Health Information System (e-CHIS) ensures that the system is not just accurate but also practical, user-friendly, and aligned with the community needs
 
Speaking at the meeting, Director for Community Health Services, Dr Joseph Lolepo mentioned the importance of integrating e-CHIS with SMC, saying that it enhances effective coverage of registered households during the campaign.

“If we have to upscale SMC to the other sub-counties, it will enhance coverage of the vast Turkana community and, with time, attract more resources,” he said.

The County Malaria Coordinator David Ekai  said that the digitisation of the SMC Process reduces workload by ensuring the timely process of SMC implementation. He added that in the past years, SMC interventions have led to healthy outcomes in malaria prevention.

The findings from the assessment showed that intensified SMC campaigns play a significant role in reducing perception of risk and severity, which has been proven to contribute to increased malaria prevalence across the 15 high-burden counties. The adoption is expected to significantly improve the implementation of SMC in Turkana Central.

The National Malaria Program Officer Andrew Wamari outlined the upcoming activities for SMC, including technical support to health workers, household registration coverage through the e-CHIS tool, and the full implementation scheduled to take place between June and October 2025.

The second round of SMC seeks to protect children and expectant mothers at risk of severe malaria by administering anti-malarial medication and ensuring healthy lives.

The User Acceptance Testing (UAT) was done prior to validate the functionality, usability, and reliability of the newly digitized SMC system.

This was a multi-agency activity including the County  Health Management Team, National Malaria Contrary Program, Sub-county health management, Catholic Relief Services, Moi/Duke University, and Clinton Health Access Initiative who were present.