Let's take our seat to CHPs, public officials here led by chiefs. An issue that goes to the very heart of our nation's dignity, the survival and the well-being of our mothers and newborns. No nation can truly call itself progressive when women continue to lose their lives while giving life. Every maternal death is a profound tragedy, especially because the overwhelming majority of these deaths are preventable. As president, I reaffirm today that no woman in Kenya should die. Not only the right to survive, but also the opportunity to thrive. While Kenya has made progress in expanding access to health, we must also acknowledge that maternal and newborn deaths remain unacceptably high. With only four years remaining before meeting our national and global targets, it can no longer be business as usual. We cannot continue losing precious lives to preventable causes.
When I say unacceptably high, I mean that. And I remember an incident. I was in New York last year and a lady, Professor Site of Warren Buffett, she walked to me and told me, 'Mr. President, women and children are dying in your country.' You know, I looked at that lady and it was a very embarrassing moment to me. It was tragic really because she went on to tell me, 'You are in the league of Afghanistan.' I don't know whether you people know where that is, you know. And she told me Kenya is a very progressive country and it is shameful that mothers continue to lose lives when they are giving birth and newborns continue to die. And it quickly reminded me of my very own personal experience. Mama Rachel here and I lost our firstborn son. So it's not something that is farfetched. It's not something that is a story. It's a reality that we live through every day.
And health, as I have always said, cannot continue to be a privilege for those who can afford, those who have jobs or those who have money. It cannot. Health must be, as is in the constitution section 43, a right for every citizen of the republic of Kenya irrespective of who they are, where they come from, their socioeconomic status or whatever other persuasion. And it is the reason why I was willing to do anything to make sure that universal health coverage succeeds. I am very happy today. Today I can say here with confidence, and governors are here. They are the ones who run our health institutions. Today we have a different story. It is not what it was. Sometimes people don't want to say because, as I said earlier, good news is never news, you know. And I saw Abdul Swamat trying to persuade the media as to what kind of headline to have tomorrow. I want to tell you, up to summit you will never get such a headline because it will sell no newspaper, you know. But that aside, what we are doing here today, when I came back from New York I called Adam Naidol, my friend, it cannot be these women in Kenya cannot continue to die. I'm very happy that the progress we have made in the last 6 months is clear and demonstrable.
In 6 months time, God willing, we must cut down by half the number of women and newborns by half. And we must progressively drive it to the place where we can account for every mother and every child. We can account for every pregnancy. And I have instructed the digital health authority and the CEO is here. I receive reports every evening between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. on the registrations of SHA and all the other things that we must now have. How many mothers and how many newborns did we lose every day? Who are their names? Who are their names, which facility, which health professional? Because all these are preventable and therefore we must hold each other to account. Now I'm very happy governors are here. We did mobilize resources because apart from everything else that we are doing there was need for resources. There is need for equipment for us to be able to capacitate the hospitals to handle these situations. And you see when we talk about pregnancy it's not about women. No woman gets pregnant on their own. So no, the men, we must not pretend that we are here and this is a women issue and it should be about no. We must also be candid about our because every pregnancy a man is involved. And number two, a pregnancy doesn't, I mean childbirth, doesn't happen overnight. You know this is, you have notice of 9 months. So to pretend at the very last minute that you are not organized, you didn't know, I don't know what happened is to be, is not correct. How we end up with an emergency on a situation we have 9 months notice is completely reckless. There is no emergency that of 9 months. Honestly, so this cannot continue.
And the 20 counties that have the highest burden, the names are here, the 20 counties. We have real people. We have leaders in those counties. We have women leaders in those counties. We have governors in those counties. We have members of parliament in those counties. We have chiefs and everybody. And I want to promise you that I will lead from the front. That is what I have done. Until we stop this, a maternal or newborn death does not only devastate a family. It weakens the very foundation of a community and a nation. When a mother survives, her child is more likely to be immunized, well-nourished, educated, and become productive. By protecting mothers and children, we are not merely saving lives. We are breaking cycles of poverty and building a stronger future for Kenya.
It is for this reason that today we launch the Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere Acceleration Plan 2026-2028. Kenya's national roadmap to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths and strengthen the systems that protect families across our country. At the center of this plan is an immediate six-month maternal and newborn health rapid results initiative running from now until November 2026. This will be an urgent nationwide effort to deliver measurable results and accelerate action where it matters most. We already know the greatest threats facing women and newborns. Delays in seeking care. My good Leia just told us what the situation is. Delays in reaching health facilities and delays in receiving quality treatment once at these facilities. These challenges are often worsened by weak referral systems, shortages of essential medicines and gaps in frontline health services. Today I'm therefore declaring a whole of society response to this challenge. This is not a task for the Ministry of Health alone. It's not about the county alone. It requires all of us, the national government, the county government, parliament, religious leaders. And I'm happy Kabiru, the bishop of Nairobi is right here with us. The private sector, health workers and citizens including our civil society. I listen to my good brother there who runs an organization to sensitize matters to do with maternal health. We all need to move together urgently and with purpose.
This administration has already laid the foundation for this transformation. We have allocated 13.1 billion to the primary health fund and continue to support more than the 107 community health promoters who serve as the frontline guardians of mothers and newborns in our communities. And I want to congratulate these good people. I say they are our true soldiers. When we proposed that let us pay them a small stipend, I want to thank county governors. We agreed and many of you had gone ahead. We are now working together. We will do the following because they have demonstrated impact and outcomes that justify us doing more for our CHPs. We are providing money in this year's budget close to 2.3 billion shillings to give them new kits. We know the kits they have used is now 3, 4 years going. So we are going to provide them with new kits. Number two, we are also going to ensure that each and every CHP in partnership with counties we pay for them SHIF so that they too are covered. And number three, as Abdul Sam said, we also make sure that their allowances don't delay. We package them into one so that they can receive it on time.
We have strengthened the social health authority and are leveraging digital health systems to make healthcare more transparent, more efficient, more accountable and data-driven. To further guarantee the dignity and safety of every mother, the national treasury will allocate an additional 4 billion Kenya shillings to SHA to cover premiums for pregnant women so that no mother is denied delivery services because of their inability to pay. No woman should ever be turned away from a health facility at the very moment when she needs care most. Further, SHA will operationalize ambulance referral services within the 6 months rapid results initiative period supported by a clear reimbursement mechanism to ensure emergency referrals are not delayed by cost or by bureaucracy. On the issue of medical commodities, KEMSA will receive an additional allocation of 1 billion shillings. We already made 10 billion shillings available to them. They will get an additional 1 billion for the procurement of life-saving maternal and newborn health commodities alongside Kenya shillings 2.5 billion for family planning commodities. A strategic investment capable of significantly reducing maternal deaths and improving health outcomes. Stockouts of essential maternal and newborn supplies are completely unacceptable. Every Kenyan mother deserves access to safe and reliable care regardless of where she lives.
To strengthen frontline health services, 5,000 nurses and midwives will be recruited and deployed across the country. And I am happy that members of parliament are here, make sure that the budget we propose carries the resources for us to achieve this. A skilled health worker is, let me repeat this, a skilled health worker in the right place at the right time often represents the difference between life and death. Additionally, we will increase investment in safe blood systems across the country because no woman should lose her life simply because blood was unavailable during an emergency. Ladies and gentlemen, accountability for these commitments begins with me. I will personally engage governors to ensure this initiative delivers measurable results. We will agree on clear targets, review progress regularly and account not only for every shilling spent but also for every pregnancy and every life saved. This initiative will be guided by real time accountability systems including monthly performance dashboards and digital reporting tools. Every maternal and newborn death must be reviewed, not necessarily to assign blame but to prevent the next avoidable tragedy. I mean every. And I am happy that in the ecosystem that we are building, chief, the whole community will be in the equation. We want a report. If a hospital fails to report the death of a mother or a child, the community should, the chief should. The new makumi person should, the next person should because we must account for every mother.
To our governors, I ask you to lead from the front because outcomes will ultimately be determined in our counties, hospitals, maternity wards and health centers. To our health workers, I express the gratitude of our nation. You carry the greatest burden of this mission and your service saves lives every single day. To our partners and the private sector, to the Susan Buffett Foundation and other partners, I urge you to continue working with us. We will deploy our own resources. We will use whatever other resources are made available to us as we align all our support behind this single national plan. And to our communities, I appeal to you. Seek care early. Support pregnant mothers and never remain silent when preventable deaths occur. The community, yes, let us not remain silent. Ladies and gentlemen, let us be the generation that refused to accept preventable maternal and newborn deaths as normal. Let us be the generation that chose action over indifference and urgency over delay. And together, let us build a Kenya where every mother survives childbirth and every child has a fair chance at life.
Let me say this in conclusion that we will do our part. The progress we have made in making sure every facility has the resources either through PHC or through SHA, in total have resources. I've been taking time to speak to some of our governors here that every month we release money that goes to our facilities today. Today facilities that have never seen money today they receive money. Yes. SHA is not working. SHA is not working, you know. And those who are telling us SHA is not working, they have no clue what works. They have no idea, you know. Listen friends, I am very confident about the future of this nation. We are running SHA not on borrowed money, not on gifts. We are running SHA, the largest undertaking by any administration on matters health, using our own resources. Yes, the great people of Kenya are funding it. SHA. Yes, the great people of Kenya are funding SHA and we are seeing results. KEMSA today, the refill rate 3 years ago at KEMSA was 30, 37, 38%. The CEO of KEMSA is here. Now we are all the way to 90 and we should take it to 100. We must take it to 100. I was speaking to Sess here and she was telling me one of the hospitals she went, she was surprised at the store how full the medicine was. I mean for the first time, you know, and I told my friends governors here if you want us to succeed we must solve this akunadawa problem in our health facilities. And I want to ask very respectfully that the resources that goes from SHA to facilities, the first use of that money should be to make sure that there are health commodities there, medicine. You know today there are some hospitals they have money they don't know what to do with it. I'm told some governors were telling me the hospital boards are going to ask them so what are we supposed to do with this money, you know because many of the counties have implemented FIF every facility and I like what Saga was saying here we must empower every facility we must give it the right board citizens must be involved They must be there. The local people must be there, you know, and they must understand what is going on because when we send money, they must be the ones to prioritize how that money is used. What comes first? Is it building the gate or is it buying medicine? The people must take that decision at that level and we will continue building capacity.
You know I am very passionate about universal health because so many people get into poverty because of health bills which we can pay for. You know which we can pay if we are organized the way we are organized today the WhatsApp groups for raising harams for hospital bills have gone down. Yes. That is the reality today you have testimonies in villages in small places SHA paid this much SHA paid that much paid the other much that is and this is just one year one and a half years. You know I went to Egypt and I don't know who was there with me, yes Dwell was there with me, the minister for health, we were taken through their universal health coverage and it is almost similar to ours. They started it before. But they have out of a population of 100 million people, 100 plus million people, they only have about 8 million people. When we tell people we have 31 million people on our platform in one and a half years, it doesn't look real and it will never make it to the headline. But you know that's the kind of transformation that's going on around our country but headline or no headline Kenya is transforming and we will do it and I am very confident about the future of this country. Yeah. So let us get at it. It is now, ladies and gentlemen, my very distinct honor to officially launch the Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere Acceleration Plan 2026, 2028 and phase one of its implementation, the maternal and newborn health rapid results initiative.
Just give me a minute. We have just released equipment going to 630 facilities in 20 counties. The counties who are doing well, they've told me they should not be punished for doing well. We will make sure they too get equipment and we will continue pushing the needle until we get every facility equipped to make sure that no mother dies and no newborn dies because we can do it. We have the capacity to do it. I have said we will hire more nurses. We will train more people. We will have more new midwives for us to have the human capital enough to present our children, our newborns and our mothers from losing their lives. This is not politics. This is about life. This is about Kenya and we must do it together. I want to thank the county governments. They have been phenomenal. Let me say that in the past we used to argue. But I think we have finished, we have settled the arguments in terms of who is big, who is small, whose position, whose responsibility, all that we have finished because we've all realized that ultimately we serve one people, the people of Kenya. And counties can support national government and national government can support counties. That's the spirit of the constitution itself and there is no competition between the national government and counties. We have just signed another agreement, a cooperation agreement for our county aggregation and industrial parks. We will be providing resources for the roll out of common user facilities in our county aggregation and industrial parks to support agro-processing, value addition, manufacturing in every county. Again, in partnership with county government and we very sincerely, I very sincerely appreciate that partnership and you can count on my goodwill. You can count on my support and my partnership and that of the administration as we work together. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude this by saying I am truly, truly proud. We had a very emotional moment this morning. We've had another very emotional moment this afternoon. Today was a day of great emotion. I don't know what happened but we are making good progress, very, very good progress. So thank you very much.
