The Principal Secretary for Public Health and Professional Standards, Mary Muthoni has urged national and county stakeholders to intensify coordinated action on hygiene, safe water, sanitation and waste management.
This, she said, is a cornerstone of disease prevention and a critical pathway to sustainable Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Muthoni was speaking during the Epuka Uchafu, Afya Nyumbani stakeholder engagement in Nairobi on Tuesday.
The PS noted that Kenya continues to lose lives, productivity, and public resources to preventable illnesses driven by poor hygiene, unsafe water, weak sanitation systems and unmanaged waste.
She emphasised that these risks are visible daily in households, markets, schools, health facilities, and public spaces, contributing to diarrhoeal diseases, cholera, typhoid, malaria, respiratory infections and childhood malnutrition.
Muthoni underscored that prevention is the most cost-effective investment for the health system.
She further warned that billions of shillings are lost annually through healthcare costs, lost productivity, environmental degradation and premature deaths linked to poor sanitation and unsafe water.
She stressed that UHC cannot rely on curative services alone and must prioritise household and community-level preventive measures.
The PS highlighted Epuka Uchafu, Afya Nyumbani (EUAN) as a practical national response anchored in Primary Health Care Networks and delivered through Community Health Promoters.
The initiative promotes proper waste handling, safe water practices, hygiene, sanitation, and environmental cleanliness as routine behaviours embedded in daily life.
She called for stronger county coordination through steering committees and aligned national structures to streamline planning, supervision, and reporting, avoid duplication, and scale effective interventions.
She further emphasised the need for functional handwashing facilities, reliable hygiene supplies, safe household water treatment, protected water sources, and strengthened routine water quality monitoring, particularly in informal settlements and underserved areas.
On waste management, the PS urged the adoption of segregation at source, reliable collection systems, and viable recycling and composting pathways to curb environmental contamination and disease transmission, while also creating green livelihoods for youth and community groups.
Muthoni also highlighted the role of schools and young people in driving sustained behaviour change through functional WASH facilities and School Health Clubs, and stressed the importance of protecting dignity for girls and women through access to menstrual hygiene supplies and safe disposal systems.
She concluded by calling for clear commitments, aligned resources, and sustained communication in local languages through mass and digital media to reinforce prevention messages, reduce avoidable illness, ease pressure on health facilities, and accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage.