Rob Macaire

UK and Kenya- British and Kenya army medical exercise

I've always had great respect for army medics, and it was increased on a trip I made earlier this week.  I was in Baringo district, seeing at first hand some of the British Army's work, jointly with the Kenyan army and Ministry of Health,  in providing immunisations and primary healthcare (including dental care) to Kenyans whom the state's medical services find difficult to reach.  It's the fourteenth year they have done this annual exercise, covering some of the country's more remote areas.  When we dropped in to see them they had already seen over 13,000 people, and were about half way through the exercise.  Of course, initiatives like this don't resolve the underlying issues of provision of healthcare in rural areas, but I was glad to see that the Army had coordinated well with DFID's longer term programmes, for example helping to distribute anti-malarial bednets from DFID's programme.

So next time someone asks me what benefit Kenya gets from the British Army exercising here, I'll point them in the direction of some of the people I met in Baringo, as well as pointing out the economic contributions to local communities and the training the Kenyan army gets!

One of the added advantages for me of these trips to relatively remote villages is the chance to speak to local Councillors and Chiefs about the challenges they face day to day.   Often their immediate needs (a pump for a manual borehole, a maternity facility in a local diapensary) are strikingly small scale, and it's great when you see CDF money being wisely used to meet those needs. Which is why it's so tragic to hear that, on some estimates, up to 50% of CDF country-wide gets dissipated through mismanagement or corruption.  I'd be interested in readers' views on that. 

Rob

Posted at 13:45 04 June 2009 by Rob Macaire  |  Comments[1]