Principal Secretary for Public Health and Professional Standards Mary Muthoni, in September, when she led the Jamii Imara Mashinani initiative in Meru County, a citizen-engagement platform designed to bring government services closer to the people.
Public Health is lived every day in
households, villages, marketplaces, neighbourhoods where people raise families,
earn their livelihoods and confront the realities that shape their being.
Kenya’s Jamii Imara Mashinani initiative recognises this truth by bringing the
government closer to communities and ensuring that citizens are not distant
observers of development but active participants in guiding it.
While the
platform spans social, civic and economic priorities, its most tangible impact
is emerging in public health where community voices and government action meet.
At its essence, Jamii Imara Mashinani is
a people-first model. It creates a structured space for communities to express
their needs, surface challenges and shape how public services reach them.
It
also strengthens grassroots systems that already support everyday life in Kenya
such as: NGAOs, Community Health Promoters, Huduma Centres, NYOTA youth groups,
Local elders, women’s groups and faith networks. By aligning these structures
with national health priorities, the initiative ensures that development is not
only delivered but felt meaningfully at the grassroots.
This integration is already influencing
public health outcomes. For example, CHPs, who understand the realities of the
households they serve, bring forward genuine health concerns, from missed
antenatal visits to gaps in immunisation or medicine availability.
These
insights improve the accuracy of local health planning and guide targeted
interventions such as vaccination drives, screening campaigns or
community-based follow-up for chronic illnesses. In many areas, this
coordination has helped identify pregnant women earlier, ensured timely
antenatal care and created stronger support networks for mothers before and
after childbirth.
The initiative is especially valuable for
adolescents and young people. It is empowering them to resist drug and
substance abuse through community awareness efforts, positive engagement and
supportive local networks. This work is complemented by initiatives such as
Epuka Uchafu, which promote cleaner, healthier environments and strengthen
community wellbeing.
These local efforts mirror global and
regional successes. Malawi’s Community-Directed Treatment Programme for river
blindness demonstrated how local volunteers can transform disease control by
taking ownership of distribution and health education.
Rwanda’s Community Health
Worker system continues to improve maternal and child health by anchoring
follow-up and referrals within communities. In Kenya, counties like Siaya have
shown that when CHPs conduct regular household visits – tracking pregnances,
ensuring immunisation and monitoring health risks – local indicators improve
measurably.
Jamii Imara Mashinani builds on these
lessons but introduces something new: a national framework that elevates local
insights to government decision – making, enduring faster response, better
alignment and stronger accountability. It is a direct line between community
experiences and public service delivery.
As Kenya strengthens primary healthcare
and expands reforms under the Social Health Authority, this model becomes
essential. Public health systems work best when communities are empowered to
lead simple but essential action, seeking early care, adopting preventive
practices and holding services accountable for quality and access. Jamii Imara
Mashinani helps to embed these habits in everyday life while ensuring that the
government remains visible, responsive and accessible.
What the initiative ultimately
demonstrates is that sustainable public health cannot be achieved by
institutions alone. It requires a partnership where communities understand
their role, contribute their knowledge and participate in sharing solutions.
When a mother receives timely advice from a Community Health Promoters, when a
teenager learns about reproductive health from a peer mentor or when a family
resolves a service issue through a Huduma Centre these are the building blocks
of national health resilience.
Jamii Imara Mashinani reminds us that public
health begins at home and that lasting progress depends on citizens who feel
heard, supported and empowered.
By anchoring development in the lived realities
of communities, the initiative shows what can be achieved when the government
walks alongside the people it serves. It turns policy into practice and
practice into progress. One household, one community and one conversation at a
time.
Ms
Mary Muthoni Muriuki is the Principal Secretary, State Department for Public
Health and Professional Standards.