By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County Government has finally benefited from the Beyond Zero Campaign by receiving the 42nd mobile clinic from First Lady Margaret Kenyatta to help in the health sector.
According to the first lady Mrs. Margret Kenyatta County Government is committed to raising resources to improve health care across the country and urged the county governments not to relent on its effort to improve the sector. She noted that lots of deaths during child birth are still being witnessed , a situation she said should not be heard.
“Many mothers die while giving birth and children under the age of five succumb to diseases that can easily be treated. HIV prevalence through Mother-to-child transmission is still a concern countrywide.
We must work to reverse this trend to contain the pandemic. More needs to be done. There is need to scale up service delivery,” she said during the official handing over of the 42nd Beyond Zero Mobile Clinic to Busia County at Our Lady of Grace and Compassion Primary School Mundika.
In her tour to Busia County and Referral Hospital her excellency expressed satisfaction at how things are run in the hospital to keep mother and their newborn babies safe from deaths. She noted that she encountered the Kangaroo (skin to skin) concept where mothers take care of their premature babies instead of incubators.
She said the impact of the Government free maternity health care and modern theaters and equipment are other achievements recorded by Busia Government, adding that there was need to increase the human resource to the sector. Mrs. Kenyatta thanked Governor Sospeter Ojaamong for the good work he was doing of transforming the county to make it the lead in health care across the country.
“I am very impressed with the role Busia County First Lady Judy Ojaamong is taking in empowering the girl-child to stand and speak up. Your support in cancer awareness and Beyond Zero campaign has made impact in the county,” She said.
On the other side Busia county governor Sospeter Ojaamong thanked the First Lady for the Beyond Zero campaign initiative and promised her of his government’s support in availing services to sustain the project. He said County Government’s encountered many challenges during the onset of devolution since Governors were given devolved functions without costing. ” We grappled with the challenges which had borne fruits. Many changes have taken place in the sector with upgrading of health institutions across the country, constructions of drugs store, purchase of stores and increase in budget for purchase of drugs from Sh100m to Sh350m, among others,” he said.
County Executive Committee member in charge of Health and Sanitation Dr Maurice Siminyu noted that the county is planning to come up with blood donation Centre to ease the chronic blood shortage that is being witnessed in the county
Busia Women representative Florence Mutua and Teso South MP Mary Emaase said they were proud of the First Lady for her initiatives. They appealed the county government to pump more resources in the sector to make sure all the dispensaries across the county start operating.
