Kindiki: We’re determined to make Taifa Care work

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has insisted that the Kenya Kwanza Administration is determined to make the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme, Taifa Care, work.

Speaking during the official opening of the Nyanza International Investment and Development Conference in Kisumu County, Kindiki said the government is persuaded that it needs a healthy population.

He said that even though not perfect, it is better than not having any health insurance cover at all.

The DP said that the government is also perfecting the programme by the day and they plan to make it better and to have many more Kenyans onboard from the current 18 million.

“We are spending a lot of money and the middle class is almost getting impoverished because of Harambees, people selling property land to finance health and we need more people with health insurance cards. It may be less than perfect but it’s better than no card. We are working on perfecting the imperfections in Taifa Care," Kindiki said.

“We had 9 million Kenyans insured since independence and in the last 3 months we have doubled the number of people who have some form of health insurance to 18 million Kenyans and we want to scale up that to 50 million."

He noted that for Kenya to realise its destiny, Health and Education matters must be taken with utmost importance.

“If you have an educated healthy population, then the other pillars will be realized. That is why this administration is going out of its way to ensure the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for Kenya, Taifa Care works.”

Kindiki added that many other countries have struggled with UHC with very limited success including in the US where they succeeded with Obama Care, then Supreme Court moderated what it would later become.

He further noted that Kenya’s two previous administrations tried implementing the UHC but backtracked.

He, however, said that there is no going back for the Kenya Kwanza administration.

Kindiki insisted that they would make it work, even if it would make the President lose popularity.

“But we have said this time we will make sure we get UHC through even at the expense of our popularity. If that is what will affect the popularity of President Ruto so be it. What defines a leader is not how long they have been in office, it’s what they leave behind,” he said.