Lead image for Hospitals hit by drug shortages as Sh8b debt hangs over Kemsa.
Renal and cancer patients have been left to fend for themselves as the drugs that keep them alive, along with basic supplies like gloves, run out across Kenya's public health facilities.
From national referral hospitals in Nairobi to county facilities across the regions, patients and health workers are navigating a supply chain crisis that has stripped wards of the most basic items — examination gloves, dialysis bloodlines, cancer drugs, postpartum haemorrhage medication and antibiotics.
The commodities that a functioning health system should guarantee are no longer assured and what was once a shocking shortage has quietly and dangerously become the norm.
At dialysis units, patients are sent home because there are no bloodlines to connect them to the machines. In oncology wards, cancer patients miss treatment cycles because drugs such as Goserelin and Rituximab have not been procured.
In maternity units, the drug most effective at preventing the bleeding that kills Kenyan mothers more than any other cause has been out of stock since late 2025. In surgical wards, gloves are out of stock.
This is Kenya's medical supply chain in 2026 and Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) is aware of the shortages. It is also, by its own account, unable to fix them quickly.
An insider at Kemsa, who spoke to the Daily Nation on condition of anonymity, was blunt about the institution’s situation.
"We owe suppliers approximately Sh4 billion," the source said. "And the total amount counties, the Ministry of Health, and other partners owe us is Sh8 billion."