Lodwar- July 2, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
The County Government is in transition talks with the USAID Imarisha Jamii, a five-year program funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS-Relief (PEPFAR) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to increase the use of quality county-led health and social services in Turkana County.
The implementation period for the Imarisha Jamii project was scheduled between 2021 and March 2026. The recent Stop-Work Order exposed the need for effective and orderly transition discussions, which are key in enabling sustainability of such programs.
In a courtesy call to the Chief Officer of Medical Services, Dr Gilchrist Lokoel, the Chief of Party AMREF Health Africa Dr Evans Osembo led his team to discuss the best way forward.
Highlighting that 121 healthcare workers of different cadres supporting the USAID projects were sent on unpaid leave during the freeze, with the County only absorbing just 17 nurses then, Dr Lokoel said, “It is time we as a county started thinking of a journey to self-reliance geared towards improved health outcomes and general well-being of our populace,”
The program objectives are to increase access and demand to quality HIV prevention services such as voluntary male circumcision for over 13,000 people, HIV treatment services to over 11,000 people, health and social services for over 5,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), and Family Planning, Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health, Nutrition services among others.
The Chief Officer reiterated that there should be a seamless transition that ensures no notable gap in service delivery from client’s perspective.
“We are already taking small but bold steps towards self-reliance through various innovations like Kimormor as a form of integrated service delivery, healthcare financing strengthening through Social Health Authority and enhanced support supervision to identify gaps and leakages in the system for optimum resource use and diversifying funding sources,” he added.
Dr Osembo shared that there has been a re-alignment in the USAID support for Kenya and other countries, where the host countries are now required to assume responsibility and continuity of programs.
“It is important for the County Government to come up with a responsible and orderly transition that will not undermine the progress made and ensure the clients do not suffer upon sudden changes,” he shared.
According to Dr Osembo, the program has made significant achievement in suppressing the viral load in HIV-positive patients in Turkana.
“It is therefore important for the gains made not to be failed,” he cautioned adding “It is important to institute a clear transition framework before March 2026,”
The program has made impact in Turkana through increasing the use of quality county-led health and social services. This is by focusing on HIV; Family Planning, Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (FP/RMNCAH); Nutrition; and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program.
The CCO shared that to move forward there is need to diversify funding sources so that the gap is filled one the USAID-funded projects exit, make proper use of the available resources, and carry out a comprehensive finance and technical assessment to identify impact.
Present were the senior County Health Management Team members and representatives from Imarisha Jamii.
