Sh25b to assist put 300,000 more people on ARV in the next four years

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich

NAIROBI, KENYA: At least 1.3 million people living with HIV and Aids will be put under antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in the next four years with the assistance of Sh38 billion funding.

National government led by Treasury CS Henry Rotich on Friday penned down the lifesaving agreement with Global Fund which will see the fight against HIV and Aids getting a boost of Sh25 billion.

This will in turn help enrol 300,000 more people living with the virus under government fully funded ARV programme that will run starting January 2018 to 2021 as the current agreement elapses in December 31.

The monies, as explained by the CS will also see expansion in the number of Tuberculosis patients by tracking defaulters of treatment and tracing the missing cases of the disease.

Data from the ministry shows only 82,000 people with TB are reached for treatment compared to the over 138,000 new cases every year.

While HIV and Aids programmes will benefit from Sh25 billion, TB has been allocated Sh6.3 billion and malaria Sh6.7 billion.

Rotich said of the six agreements signed, three grants worth Sh26.3 billion will be implemented by the National Treasury through the Ministry of Health and the other three worth Sh4.6 billion and Sh7.1 billion will be handled by non-state partners namely Amref and Kenya Red Cross respectively.

He added that Kenya’s partnership with Global Fund has seen a disbursement of Sh98 billion through 19 grants part of which has facilitated to put one million children and adult on ARVs and provided TB medicines to over 900,000 patients over the last decade.

“With this new grant, we will continue to support prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions for HIV, TB and Malaria,” he said during the signing.

Rotich said the funding is in line with the government’s sustainability agenda to meet its 20 percent obligation of co-financing: “The government has allocated Sh10 billion for the period 2018 to 2021 to support HIV, Tuberculosis and malaria interventions in Kenya.”

This funding, as noted by Kenya Red Cross Abba Gullet has undoubtedly renewed the level of trust to facilitate absorption of resources in the country which stands at 88 percent from 48 percent in 2012.

Head of Global Fund’s High Impact Africa II Department Linden Morrison added that Kenya has in several ways demonstrated tremendous results on such funding.