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Kenya loses 5,000 mothers annually to pregnancy-related complications that are entirely preventable, Health Director-General Patrick Amoth has revealed.
Speaking on Monday at the International Maternal and Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) 2026 in Nairobi, Amoth said the country's maternal mortality ratio stands at 355 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Post-partum haemorrhage accounts for 37 per cent of all maternal deaths, followed by eclampsia at 22 per cent and sepsis at 12 per cent.
"Women are dying because societies are yet to decide that their lives are worth saving," said Amoth.
He added that despite available medical tools and scientific knowledge, mothers continue to die from preventable causes.
Only 37 per cent of health facilities meet the full basic emergency obstetric and newborn care criteria, underlining the scale of the crisis.
Kenya requires at least 138 million US dollars to scale up newborn care, an investment projected to save 47,000 newborn lives between 2026 and 2030.
The funding is also expected to avert 4,600 maternal deaths and 11,000 stillbirths over the same period.
Twenty-six of the country's 47 counties account for all maternal mortalities, Amoth noted, pointing to deep geographic disparities in access to care.
Other leading causes of maternal death include antepartum haemorrhage at nine per cent, unanticipated pregnancy complications at eight per cent, abortion at five per cent, ruptured uterus at four per cent, obstructed labour at three per cent and ectopic pregnancy at two per cent.
The IMNHC, a premier global forum on maternal and newborn health, brought together 1,800 participants from over 100 countries, including 40 official country delegations, to assess gains in expanding maternal and newborn care while confronting persistent gaps in quality, access and equity.
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