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He says over 55,000 people have been screened and 2,200 health workers trained, while reaffirming Health CS Aden Duale’s confirmation that the country remains Ebola-free.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the board said the falsified product had been identified during routine post-marketing surveillance activities conducted to monitor health products and technologies in circulation across the country.
The Health CS said Kenya continues to work closely with county governments, regional bodies and international partners to strengthen preparedness and response activities.
Duale said government agencies are closely tracking the situation and maintaining high alert systems at border points and in high-risk counties. He added that response teams remain on standby to contain any possible spread while reinforcing monitoring systems in vulnerable areas.
According to WHO, the success of containment efforts now depends on access to affected areas, with officials stressing that “stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access.”
The Global Fund, which supports disease control programmes across the world through grants issued every three years, attributed the lower allocation to a fundraising shortfall.
At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called on staff to volunteer for urgent deployment to help with Ebola screening at United States entry points as surveillance measures are tightened.
Duale acknowledged that delays in the process had created confusion among affected workers and expressed regret over the situation. He said the ministry was working to restore clarity and ensure smooth salary processing going forward.
Duale explained that the suspected cases triggered a wider public health response, including tracing and testing of contacts, all of whom were cleared after laboratory analysis confirmed they were free of the virus.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 750 suspected Ebola cases and 177 suspected deaths had been recorded, cautioning that the situation remained fluid as surveillance and laboratory testing continued to improve.
Released during the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the report, A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future, says countries are still failing to invest enough in preparedness even as disease threats continue to grow.
Senator Mutinda said many public health facilities are already facing severe stockouts of essential family planning supplies, warning that access to reproductive health services has been affected.
World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing that the outbreak may have started spreading a few months ago and could have been accelerated by a “super-spreader event”, possibly a funeral held in early May.
The Ministry noted that the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 16, 2026, while the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention classified it as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security.
During a fact-finding visit in March, the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Health found that a cancer treatment machine had been out of service for 60 days, worsening pressure on oncology services.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the union said the incident turned a place of healing into a scene of fear, warning that continued attacks on health facilities threaten the country’s ability to provide lifesaving services during periods of unrest.
The ministry said no Ebola case has been detected in Kenya so far, but warned that increased regional movement of people and goods raises the risk of cross-border transmission.
The HIV programme has received the largest allocation of Sh8.83 billion, accounting for more than 70 per cent of the total funding, while malaria has been allocated Sh2.28 billion and tuberculosis Sh1.26 billion.
In a new report released ahead of World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, WHO said weak or non-existent regulation in more than 160 countries is exposing young users to addiction risks linked to nicotine, which can harm brain development and increase long-term dependence.
Africa’s top health agency, on May 15, 2026 declared an Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo’s Ituri Province, with reports indicating around 246 cases and over 60 deaths, mainly in the gold-mining towns of Mongwalu and Rwampara, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
SHA chief executive Dr Mercy Mwangangi told the committee on Thursday, that the authority had achieved a national claim settlement rate of 79 per cent and had so far disbursed Sh139.5 billion under different health financing programmes.
According to Dr. Omanwa, infertility remains a major challenge across the world, with African countries recording some of the highest rates despite the continent’s high birth rates.
In its World Health Statistics 2026 report, WHO says progress against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and antimicrobial resistance is not fast enough to meet 2030 targets, and warns funding cuts could worsen outcomes for billions.
CS Duale further told MPs that the contractor who constructed and equipped the hospital has refused to hand it over due to unpaid dues, leaving a completed facility unused.
In a new report released during Salt Awareness Week 2026, WHO said the average global sodium intake remains more than double the recommended daily limit of 2,000 milligrams — roughly equivalent to one teaspoon of salt. The agency estimates that high sodium consumption contributed to 1.7 million deaths in 2023 alone.
The Director General of the International Vaccine Institute, Jerome H. Kim, says funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been central in advancing work on diseases that traditional drug companies often ignore due to low financial returns.
The Ministry of Health rolled out the devices in late 2023, targeting about 100,000 Community Health Promoters to support data entry, patient registration, and reporting through the Electronic Community Health Information System.
Duale noted that the upcoming budget prioritises reforms aimed at improving service delivery, including expansion of UHC, increased use of digital systems in health services, and strengthening domestic manufacturing of health commodities to reduce dependence on imports.
Ruto painted a detailed picture of the imbalance, noting that Africa carries nearly 25 per cent of the global disease burden while accounting for less than 20 per cent of the world’s population.
Kenya’s immunisation programme, run through the Kenya Expanded Programme on Immunisation, covers diseases including tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, pneumonia, rotavirus diarrhoea, measles, rubella, and cervical cancer.