President William Ruto has signed a deal with the Government of Italy and Italian firm GKSD Group to build 15 new hospitals across 15 counties, in a move meant to widen access to healthcare and push Kenya closer to universal health coverage.
The deal was signed on Tuesday, September 8, at State House in Nairobi. It falls under Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa, a programme Rome uses to build closer ties with African countries through investment in areas like healthcare, energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, GKSD Chairman Kamel Ghribi, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, governors and other guests from both countries attended the signing.
Under the agreement, 13 Level 5 county referral hospitals and two Level 6 national teaching and referral hospitals will be built. “Under this partnership, we will build 13 Level 5 county referral hospitals and 2 Level 6 national teaching and referral hospitals in 15 counties,” Ruto said.
He called the moment a big step for the country’s health sector. “Today I am very proud that we are inching close to not just actualising universal health coverage in Kenya but also providing the most modern available health facilities anywhere in the globe,” he said.
The two Level 6 hospitals will be built in Mombasa and Uasin Gishu counties. In Mombasa, the new Mombasa National Teaching and Referral Hospital will be built in Jomvu, a project Ruto said came out of talks with Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir.
In Uasin Gishu, the project builds on the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, which Ruto said has already started. The other counties set to get new Level 5 referral hospitals include Kilifi, Mandera, Marsabit, Embu, Kisii, Turkana, Marigat, Transmara West, Migori, Nyamira, Baringo, Nakuru, Bomet, Narok and Laikipia.
Ruto said each county was chosen after talks with governors and a look at what each region actually needs. In Embu, he said he had visited the existing hospitals himself and spoken to county leaders about the need for better facilities. In Kisii, he said Governor Simba Arati had pushed repeatedly for a new hospital after an older one was condemned.
“That facility was not done well, and it was condemned when it was finished, and now the facility has to be brought down,” Ruto said.
He also pointed to Turkana as an area badly in need of support. “Of course, in the great county of Turkana, again, I have gone personally to the facility in Turkana County, and if there is one place where health outcomes require support, it is in Turkana County,” he said.
Marigat was picked because of its population and the health needs linked to cattle rustling in the area, while the Transmara West hospital came out of talks with Governor Patrick Ntutu.
Kenya currently has about 12 hospital beds for every 10,000 people, well below the World Health Organisation’s recommended 25 beds per 10,000 people.
Ruto said the new hospitals should help close that gap, ease pressure on major hospitals like Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and bring specialist care closer to people who currently have to travel far to get it.
Even so, building will not start right away. The National Treasury still needs to work out financing details with the Italian side, and the Ministry of Health has been told to speed up the technical and legal groundwork needed before construction can begin. Neither the total cost of the deal nor how it will be repaid was made public at the signing.
Ruto said the government intends to judge the programme by results, not paperwork. “Ultimately, the true value of these investments will not be in the agreements we sign or the infrastructure we build, but in the lives we improve,” he said.
The deal builds on earlier talks between Kenya and Italy. In April this year, the two countries signed eight memoranda of understanding, including a plan to upgrade hospitals from Level 4 to Level 5, and from Level 5 to Level 6, in 15 counties, with the plan now moving into its execution phase.
GKSD Group, the Italian healthcare and hospital-building firm linked to Milan’s Gruppo San Donato, has been involved in shaping the partnership since 2021 through repeated visits to Nairobi by its chairman, Kamel Ghribi.
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