Mombasa forum a huge success!

The Kenyan team organised a successful public forum in Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya, on June 23rd at the Mombasa Municipal Stadium. The public forum was intended to publicize the campaign and its objectives, to create public pressure for reforms within the Kenya Medical Supply Agency (KEMSA) and to publicize the SMS pill check week.

There were about 100 people in attendance comprised of Civil Society organizations (CSOs), Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as the general public mobilized by the local administration. The attendees were very enthusiastic about the campaign and gave moving testimonies about their stock-outs experiences in the district. They were glad that the forum enlightened and educated them on their right to access medicine and to push government for the same. They said it was a good idea to have a forum such as this to share their plight in accessing essential medicine and to point out negligence among health workers in public health facilities.

The participants were enthusiastic and called on the stock-outs team to advocate for this issue so that it is widespread and called upon the government to act quickly to provide essential medicines in order to avert unnecessary deaths. The Kenyan team also launched the SMS campaign and informed the members of the public to text in when they experience stock-outs in public health institutions.

As a followup, the team intends to continue engaging local organizations and empowering them to be able to further involve the public through the local media. In addition, the team will demand that policymakers, politicians and parliamentarians put issues of essential medicines and drug availability on their agenda. A similar forum is planned for Kisumu, a city in the Western part of Kenya in the second week of July.

David Musyoki in the back with the crowd at the Mombasa forum.

The crowd at the Mombasa forum.