The DHS Program

Nairobi, Kenya
The Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 Hon. Wycliff Oparanya, will officially release the 2010 Service Provision Assessment (KSPA) survey results. The report paints a mixed picture of Kenya’s health facilities. Child care, antenatal care, family planning, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections are widely available in at least two-thirds of Kenyan health care facilities.

Access to HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy has increased substantially over the last five years. However, only 30% of all of Kenya’s health care facilities provide services for delivering children.

Care for sick children and treatment of malaria are almost universally available. Eighty-five percent of facilities now offer services for temporary, reversible family planning methods, an increase from 75% in 2004. Only a minority of facilities, just 8%, provide either female or male sterilisation, however.

Delivery care has not improved since 2004. While more than 8 in ten hospitals, health centres, and maternities provide delivery care, this service is available in only 21% of dispensaries and just 4% of clinics.

All together, only 30% of facilities offer delivery care and only 23% of services provide delivery services 24 hours a day. Less than two-thirds of these facilities have adequate infection control and all the equipment and supplies needed for normal deliveries. Potentially life-saving services are much less available. Only 5% of health facilities, mostly hospitals and maternities, provide Caesarean sections. On the positive side, almost half of facilities now have a transportation service for maternal emergencies, a substantial increase from 27% in 2004.

Compared to 2004, Kenyans have greater access to HIV testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, and antiretroviral therapy (ART). Currently almost three-fourths of health care facilities can test for HIV infection, up from 37% in 2004. The minimum PMTCT package including preventive treatment with antiretroviral medication for mother and/or newborn, has also increased, although less substantially, from 13% in 2004 to 19% in 2010. ART for children and adults with HIV infection is available in 17% of facilities, more than double the rate of 7% in 2004.

Many Kenyan health facilities still lack basic equipment necessary for good quality of care. Just under half of all facilities, including 58% of all hospitals, have a year-round supply of water. Only one in four facilities has an uninterrupted electricity supply or a generator with fuel. An almost equal proportion — 26% — has neither. Two in five (40%) of facilities in Western and Eastern provinces do not have either an uninterrupted electricity supply or a generator with fuel.

The 2010 Kenya Service Provision Assessment (KSPA) survey collected data from 695 health facilities nationwide, including hospitals, health centres, maternities, clinics, and dispensaries. The KSPA was implemented by the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) with technical assistance from ICF Macro through the MEASURE DHS project. Financial support was provided by USAID, UNFPA, UNICEF, DFID, and DANIDA.