In The Kenyanist today, we are joined by John Kinuthia, a Senior Program Officer at the International Budget Partnership who has recently, together with his colleagues, published a study on the transparency and accountability of the NHIF.

Health financing is a big deal. It has been part of global, regional and national political conversations. 

It is known that the developed countries in the world spend more money on healthcare, as a proportion of the GDP, compared with developing countries. For instance, it is known that countries in Africa spend about 6%t of their GDP on health, which is less than the 9.5% of GDP that the countries of the OECD spend on healthcare systems. Of course, there are important differences between countries. 

In Kenya, healthcare is now largely decentralised, with many responsibilities being transferred to the county government after the 2010 constitution came into effect. 

We have also seen some growth in the amount of money being spent on healthcare.  For instance, in 2020, the allocation of government expenditure on health stood at 6.2% compared to 4.55% of GDP in 2016.

There are many aspects of the political economy of healthcare that we can talk about and indeed will look forward to talking about here on The Kenyanist as we seek a broader and deeper understanding of this really important part of our shared lives as Kenyans. 

In this episode, however, we will focus on the National Health Insurance Fund or NHIF, the state corporation at the centre of our national conversations on healthcare financing. 

We hope you enjoy the show and find the discussion illuminating. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or guest and topic recommendations, please reach us at www.thekenyanist.com or on our social media handles using the handle @TheKenyanist.