The Costly Access to Essential Medicines in Kenya: Voices of Consumers on Affordability and Availability

Between August and December 2007, Health Action International (HAI) Africa conducted a rapid qualitative survey to gather testimonies from consumers about how they fulfilled their medical needs. This exercise was informed by findings from earlier studies on medicine prices and availability, which indicated that only about 30 percent of Kenyans had access to essential medicines, and that high prices and poor availability were the major factors limiting access.

The testimonies were provided by people from urban and rural environments in different parts of the country. The places visited were: Maseno, Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Takaungu. The survey respondents represented a range of income groups; they included small business operators, a small-scale farmer, a grocer, teachers, a thespian, and volunteer community workers and staff working in private firms.

More than half of the survey respondents had no medical insurance, either because they could not afford the premiums, or because they were not informed about health insurance. The survey also established that many households paid for their medical bills out of pocket. With poverty as a widespread problem, many individuals and families were unable to afford medical treatment. For some, that meant choosing between buying food or purchasing medicine.

This booklet highlights the stories of 12 of the individuals who took part in the qualitative survey.

These stories are also recorded in a short documentary on DVD format, titled "The Unsettling Equation: Consumer testimonies on affordability and availability of essential medicines."