Kenyan Groups Call for Better Access to Essential Medicines

At a press conference in Nairobi, civil society organizations called on the Kenyan government to address shortages of essential medicines throughout the country. The press conference followed a survey by the Stop Stock-Outs campaign finding that 50 percent of dispensaries and district health facilities in Kenya lack several medicines described by the World Health Organization as “essential.”

These shortages leave thousands of patients without necessary, life-sustaining medicines, or require them to go to private clinics where the prices are higher. The groups, which included the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network, Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association, Health Action International, Oxfam, and the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, noted that the shortages are mostly due to problems within the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency.

David Musyoki of the Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association (KEPHCA) highlighted another major problem in the availability of morphine, an essential medicine used to treat severe pain in cancer and AIDS patients. The morphine powder imported into the country is heavily taxed by the Kenya Revenue Authority, which in turn makes the drug expensive and unaffordable to patients. Following the press conference, KEPHCA and the Kenya Revenue Authority set a meeting to discuss the taxation issue.

The survey was conducted as part of the Stop Stock-Outs campaign's "pill check week." The campaign, which receives support from OSI, works to put pressure on governments to make essential medicines available and affordable to patients.