The United Nations replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the Sustainable Development Goals in 2012 as a bold commitment to finish the good work started by the MDGs. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global strategy to end poverty, protect the earth and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. They are a call to action to shift the world onto a more sustainable path. One of the goals is good health. The goal focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all people of all ages. This includes reducing premature deaths due to non-communicable diseases by a third in the year 2030.

In Kenya, the government has made tremendous efforts in addressing persistent health priorities such as maternal and child health, as well as communicable diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. 

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives have chosen to focus on child healthcare because children form the foundation of any nation. KRA’s CSR policy heavily invests in the well-being of children through the creation of a cheerful, recuperation-friendly and healthy environment for children in selected health facilities across the country.

In the financial year 2018/2019, KRA initiated five health projects around the country. Earlier in the year, KRA donated a 40ft container to the Kilifi Level 5 Hospital. The container was used to develop a medical facility for diabetes patients in the area to enable them to access treatment services and medication. Previously, patients had to travel 75km to Coast General Hospital to receive treatment. By August 2018, the facility was in use and diabetic patients expressed gratitude for having a clinic of their own within the hospital.

To ensure a healthier environment for children, KRA renovated a number of paediatric wards around the country. This was based on the year’s theme “touching young lives for the future”. At Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital, KRA renovated the paediatric ward through partitioning and fitting of new curtains in the ward. The children, parents, nurses and the hospital administration expressed their delight after learning that KRA does more than the collection of taxes. The ward has a capacity of 30 beds.

In October 2019, during KRA’s Annual Taxpayers Month, the Authority refurbished the Kisumu Country referral Hospital paediatric ward. The project involved a face-lift of the facility’s interior and exterior, renovation of the washrooms, window upgrading, preparing a children’s playground, installation of TV sets for children’s entertainment and installation of curtains in the ward. KRA Board Chairman Ambassador. Francis Muthaura officially launched the facility.

Other health projects undertaken in the previous financial year include the construction of 2.5million shilling wing at Bokole Health Centre in Changamwe, Mombasa. KRA contributed Kshs 1 million towards the project. The new wing will decongest the hospital and house both the general and specialized paediatric clinics.

The long-awaited Kenyatta National Hospital children playground was handed over to the hospital administration in March, 2019. This has been one of the biggest projects that KRA has initiated over the last two years. The playground aims at ensuring that children receiving treatment at the referral hospital have access to recreation.

KRA through its core values of Trustworthy, Competent, Ethical and Helpful will continue these and more initiatives in the new financial year. This will go a long way in building trust with the public as a customer-focused government agency.

By Kwaje Rading’