President William Ruto has singled out Bomet County as a model of how cooperation between the national and devolved governments can improve healthcare and agriculture, citing strong Social Health Authority (SHA) registration and the county’s participation in farmer registration.
Addressing the Bomet County Assembly on Wednesday, Ruto said the county had made progress in key services by working closely with the national government, with healthcare and agriculture emerging as major areas of success.
He said 701,000 people in Bomet had registered under SHA out of an estimated population of 800,000, placing the county among the leading counties in the country in registration for the new health insurance scheme.
“This county has performed exceptionally well in healthcare,” Ruto said.
The 701,000 registrations represent 87.6 per cent of the 800,000 population figure cited by the President, although he described the registration level as 82 per cent during his address.
Ruto also credited Bomet for taking an early lead in implementing the Community Health Promoters programme, which he said had strengthened the link between households and health services.
He said community health promoters had so far reached about nine million homes across the country, providing healthcare services at the household level.
“When the community health promoters programme was launched, Bomet was among the counties that took the lead,” he said.
The President said the national government had disbursed Sh3.2 billion to support healthcare in Bomet facilities, describing the allocation as among the highest amounts given to counties.
He also linked the funding to the Facilities Improvement Fund passed by the county assembly, saying the framework allowed the national government to channel resources to health facilities through SHA.
Ruto said Bomet had similarly made an important contribution to agriculture through its participation in the national farmer registration programme.
According to the President, the programme has created a database of 7.2 million farmers across Kenya, allowing the government to use technology to target agricultural services such as fertiliser distribution and artificial insemination.
“When we decided to register farmers, this county participated very meaningfully,” Ruto said.
He attributed improved earnings among farmers in several sectors to the use of better information and cooperation between the two levels of government.
“Our tea farmers are paid more, coffee farmers are paid more. Milk farmers are paid more. Sugar cane farmers are paid more,” he said.
Ruto said the gains in healthcare and agriculture showed the importance of cooperation between national and county governments, as well as county assemblies.
He pledged continued support for Bomet as his administration implements its development programmes, maintaining that close cooperation between the two levels of government would remain key to expanding services and driving development.
“Bomet County is a shining example of what collaboration between national and county government can achieve.”