NYERI, Kenya, Sep 5 — Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni has urged leaders to keep politics out of healthcare, as the government takes its development message and services directly to communities under the Jamii Imara Mashinani (JIM) initiative.
Speaking to the press ahead of JIM tour in Nyeri on Saturday, Muthoni said healthcare was too sensitive to be subjected to political messaging, urging Kenyans to take precautions against infectious diseases and seek care when necessary.
“Health is a sensitive issue and we always ask members of the public, please do not politicize healthcare,” Muthoni said.
She challenged those discouraging people from taking measures to prevent infections, saying such messaging could stem from a failure to understand the consequences of falling ill.
Muthoni said the government’s grassroots engagement was intended to encourage Kenyans to invest in their communities and work towards shared development.
Drawing from Jeremiah 29:7, she likened the government’s message to the biblical instruction to the Israelites in Babylon to build, prosper and seek the welfare of the city where they had settled.
“If the government succeeds, it is not Ugandans who will succeed. It is Kenyans,” she said.
She cited government investment in education, saying more than 120,000 teachers had been employed, as part of efforts to ensure Kenyan children can study and build their future in the country.
NYOTA fund
The PS also used the grassroots engagement to encourage young people to make use of opportunities under the NYOTA programme, particularly those who have not proceeded to college and remain at home without formal employment.
She said the programme was targeting 70 young people per ward, with beneficiaries receiving funds in tranches to establish businesses.
Muthoni urged beneficiaries to think beyond conventional businesses and identify opportunities within their communities.
She gave coffee farming and value addition as examples, saying a young person could invest in coffee seedlings with a parent or develop a business around packaging and marketing coffee produced by local farmers.
“I would go and get those people who sell good papers. I would make packaging that is smart. I would sell it to people,” she said.
Her remarks formed part of the wider JIM push to take government programmes and information closer to wananchi, with officials expected to engage communities on interventions beyond their individual ministries.
The initiative, established as a whole-of-government grassroots engagement platform, has so far visited 13 counties and held about 24 engagements, according to the context provided.
The Nyeri engagement comes as the government seeks to strengthen direct communication with citizens, explain its programmes and receive feedback on how public interventions are being experienced on the ground.
