By EMMANUEL WERE

The promise by the Government to provide free maternity services is an effort to meet a key Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The goal is to reduce mortality rate from live births by three quartres between 1990 and 2015.

Kenya experienced increase in death related to maternity by 25 per cent between 1990 and 2009. There are 488 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to Ministry of Health data. Over the years, the situation has worsened. In 1990, there were only 390 deaths for every 100,000 live births.

“On average, we are losing about 5,000 lives per year,” says Dr Boniface Chitayi, The National Alliance (TNA) Secretary of Health.

He adds, “Most of them (maternity deaths) are preventable if we could increase the number of women whose delivery are carried out under a skilled health practitioner.”

Dr Chitayi says while socio-cultural factors prevent some women from delivering at health facilities, economic reasons are a huge deterrence.

 The former secretary general of Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union, was one among many professionals recruited by TNA party, one of the coalition partners in the Jubilee Government, to craft its manifesto on health.

Thus, the plan by the Government would be, through the free maternity services, to have more women visit a skilled practitioner in an effort to reduce the number of mothers who die while giving birth, the number of complications that develop during labour and reduce the number of newborn babies who die a few days after birth.

According to health experts, about 90 per cent of the maternal births are done in public hospitals. The free maternity services should take effect by the end of July, 100 days after the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta. But already there is pressure to deliver on the promise.

Maternity fees

Women in parts of the country have refused to pay maternity fees after the April 9 inauguration of President Uhuru, putting some public hospitals in dilemma.

For the Government, it will be a delicate balance to fund the promise. If the free maternity services cost Sh9 billion annually, then the Government will have to find new sources of revenues. Hospitals usually get one out of every five shillings of their revenues from maternity charges, according to analysis from experts.

In the 2012/2013 Budget, only Sh85 billion, just six per cent of the budget, was allocated to the health sector. The Jubilee Government plans to raise the allocation to the health sector to 15 per cent of the national budget. 

The free maternity charges might eat into the allocation of the health sector. Dr Shahnaz Sharif, Director of Public Health and Sanitation, says some of the responsibilities lie with the private sector taking up more roles in the sector. The Ministry of Medical Services says it is working on the policy of free maternity services and should be done by April 20.