Kenyan team organizes two public forums

The Kenya ‘Stop- stock out’ campaign team is organizing two public forums to spread out the campaign message to the people on the ground as well as to create better awareness of stock outs and unavailability of essential medicines around the country.

The public forums will be held on 23 June in the coastal city of Mombasa and in the first week of July in Kisumu in Western Kenya. The forums are expected to bring together policy makers, health professionals, and civil society organizations working on health issues.

The forums will offer a good opportunity for consumers and patients to discuss problems around access to essential medicines including the causes and possible solutions. The forums are also expected to empower the public to put pressure on government to provide essential medicines in public health institutions and demand that the recommendations of the task force put up to look into the Kenya medical Supply Agency (KEMSA) be implemented.

The taskforce had recommended among others that KEMSA be given financial and operational autonomy and procurement functions be solely left to it so that it can comply with Public Procurement Regulations as outlined in the Public Procurement Act.

The two forums are being organized by the Kenyan campaign team members who include Consumer Information Network (CIN Kenya), Kenya Access Treatment Movement (KETAM) and Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association (KEPHCA).