Budget cuts wi*l disrupt vaccine program, activists say
Civil Society Organisations are protesting budget cuts for vaccines in the Financial Year 2024-2025, citing disruption to the implementation of the national immunisation programme.
The National Treasury’s approved estimates for the period in review was Sh9.8 billion, but in the supplementary estimates, this budget was revised down in February to Sh9.4 billion.
This subjected the budget cut by an estimated Sh463.1 million, about 4.6 per cent of the total allocation for the immunisation program.
This has not gone down well with the CSOs under the Health NGOs Network (HENNET) umbrella, and are eager to see this addressed promptly in the face of a reported vaccines stock-out in some six counties.
“We are deeply concerned about the immunisation budget reduction of Sh463,135,384 in the Supplementary Budget FY 2023/2024 from Sh9,892,774,930 to Sh9,429,639,546,” the CSOs said in a joint letter to the National Assembly Committee on Health chairman, Dr Robert Pukose, copied to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Samuel Njoroge.
The organisations are further concerned this is undermining the ability of the National Vaccine Immunisation Program (NVIP) to timely and urgently procure vaccines, affecting the Ministry of Health’s efforts to carry out any campaign.
“This will also affect Kenya’s co-financing payment to the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative - GAVI - with the potential of defaulting the case of 2014,” the organisations cite.
During the Immunisation week which runs between April 24 to 30, the CSOs are afraid that the general inaction as a country risk eroding the gains Kenya has made in completely eradicating some of these vaccine-preventable diseases.
