Ruto signs deal to build 10 mother and child hospitals across Kenya
President William Ruto.
President William Ruto has signed an agreement to build 10 mother and child hospitals across the country as part of efforts to improve maternal health outcomes.
The initiative, dubbed "A Promise to Life" is a partnership with the Amsons Group and is anchored on the principle that every mother deserves a safe delivery and every child a healthy start. Under the arrangement, Amsons Group will design, build and equip the hospitals, which will target underserved regions across the country.
Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, Ruto described the project as a deliberate and targeted investment to bring quality, affordable and reliable healthcare to communities that have long been left behind.
"This initiative demonstrates the strength of partnerships between the government, the private sector, and partners working together to deliver scalable and sustainable solutions. It is a shared responsibility to build, equip, staff, and sustain these facilities, and to ensure they deliver real outcomes for mothers and children," he said.
"In many parts of our country, long distances, limited infrastructure, health workforce shortages, and gaps in service delivery have placed lives at risk. Today, we are taking decisive action to change this reality," the President added.
Each hospital will have a bed capacity of at least 250 and is estimated to cost about Sh4.5 million. Once operational, the Health ministry says each facility will handle at least 300 patients daily.
All 10 hospitals will be equipped with an antenatal section, a maternal Intensive Care Unit, a labour ward, a delivery room, a recovery section and two operating tables, among other equipment. The government, through the National Equipment Service Programme managed by the Ministry of Health and the Council of Governors, will supply additional medical equipment.
The 10 facilities will be located in Nairobi, which will host two hospitals, as well as in Kisumu, Uasin Gishu, West Pokot, Mombasa, Garissa, Embu, Kwale and Nakuru counties. The project will be implemented in phases, starting with three facilities under Phase I and scaling up through to 2028.
The President said the initiative aligns with Every Woman Every New-born Everywhere, a global campaign led by the World Health Organisation and Unicef that was launched in Kenya earlier this year, aimed at eliminating preventable deaths among mothers and new-borns.
"We will accelerate this agenda through a Rapid Results Initiative focused on delivering measurable reductions in mortality," he said.
"Taken together, the 'Every Woman Every New-born Everywhere Initiative', Kenya's Rapid Results Initiative, and Amsons Group's 'A Promise to Life' programme form a unified framework that aligns investment, policy, and service delivery toward one goal — saving lives," Ruto added.
The urgency of the investment is underscored by the latest Health ministry data, released on the side-lines of the International Maternal and New-born Health conference last month, which shows that Kenya loses approximately 15 women and 92 new-borns every day to preventable causes.
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