Lodwar- May 7, 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)

The Department of Health and Sanitation has convened senior officers overseeing a number of health and sanitation functions at the department to review the Health Regulation Bills and Act. These include Community Health Services Act (2018), Alcohol, Drugs and Substance Abuse Bill, and Facility Improvement Fund (FIF) bill and consolidation.

In the two-day exercise, the team is working together with the Office of the County Attorney to ensure the CHS Act (2018) and the two bills will be tabled at the County Assembly together with their regulations for consideration after they are reviewed by the Cabinet. Once these bills and Act become law, their operationalisation will allow access to ring fenced funds to improve service delivery in all the county facilities.

This exercise marks the final stages of validations pending finalization, cabinet review, County Assembly approval and assent by H.E. Governor Jeremiah Lomorukai Napotikan.

According to Dr Joseph Lolepo, Director of Community Health Services, “Once this process is finalised, the public can expect improvement on service delivery, quality of care, including more people accessing health services from community level and health facilities due to access to funds ring fenced by the facility and use in supporting health services at any time,”

The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act requires all monies raised at the county facilities to be deposited in a County Revenue Fund maintained by the Central Bank of Kenya. Therefore, this forum is important as it requires a legal framework to allow these facilities to collect, retain and use the fees collected for efficient operations and service delivery.

“Regarding the FIF Bill, it is important that the regulations complement FIF provision to go together for approval and review at the County Assembly to allow for the Regulations to get approval for operationalisation of this bill,” said Joyce Ekai Legal Officer at the Office of the County Attorney.

The Legal Officer also added that the process required for the facilities to run their operations is long and bureaucratic, hence crippling these facilities’ functions.

With regards to the Alcohol, Drugs, and Substance Abuse Bill, the Legal Officer said the department has not been able to implement the bill due to lack of regulations especially in the operationalisation of the fund.

“There is a need to establish regulations to put in place structures for administration of this fund. There are also other aspects of critical function of the committees which should be clarified in the regulations,” she added.

According to Stephen Kangiro, Acting Director of Alcohol, Drugs, and Substance Abuse Control, “The development of the regulations will give effect to the full implementation of our objectives as a directorate. The Alcoholic Drinks Control Fund will now be fully implemented since the regulations will provide the legal framework and structures for the operationalisation.”

Additionally, Sarah Akiru, Deputy Director of Policy Planning, M&E and Partnership Coordination added that once the CHS Act (2018) and the two bills become law, the costs on stipend and alcohol utilization or alcohol business will be regularized. This aims to reduce unlawful consumption of alcohol, prevent increase of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.

Samwel Wamalwa, Advocacy and Policy Coordinator at Save The Children expressed his gratitude for the team’s effort stating, “The vibrance and dedication witnessed throughout the exercise is encouraging. We are looking forward to work together to ensure these health systems are strengthened in Turkana County.”

The expected outcomes of the CHS Act (2018) and the two bills is a well-organized Department of Health service that will ensure a healthy and productive people in Turkana County.

Supported by Save The Children International, the next steps of actions include the drafting of the Regulations of the CHS Act (2018) and the two bills, followed by the public participation exercise, and validation before they are tabled at the County Assembly.