Collaborative effort between National government and Living Goods in streamlining eCHIS

In a collaborative effort to enhance the rollout of the electronic community health information system (eCHIS) in Vihiga County, Mr. John Wanyungu, Deputy Head of the Division of Community Health at Kenya’s Ministry of Health, joined the Living Goods team in a courtesy visit to Dr. Wilbur Ottichilo, Governor of Vihiga County.

The purpose of the visit was to assess the progress of the eCHIS implementation, address challenges, and identify areas requiring immediate support. Mr. Wanyungu praised the county for its outstanding performance, particularly in household registration, with Vihiga achieving 90% coverage—having registered 146,379 out of 163,379 households.

This achievement positioned the county as the third highest nationwide and the best in the region. He also highlighted the county’s full coverage of Community Health Units, a vital step toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Primary Health Care (PHC).

Additionally, he commended Governor Ottichilo for prioritizing community health and ensuring that Community Health Promoters (CHPs) were well-supported and motivated in their roles. Mr. Wanyungu shared that, following the signing of the Inter-Parties Agreement with counties, the National Government was working to transfer CHP stipend payments to the counties.

The discussions focused on ensuring the sustainability of the community health program, with key topics including:
• Capacity building and technical training for CHPs
• Device management for eCHIS
• Sustaining commodity supplies
• CHP compensation
• Advocacy for increased county-level funding for community health services

Governor Ottichilo expressed his gratitude to Living Goods for its instrumental role in digitizing community health services and voiced his optimism about the positive impact of the community health program on Vihiga’s health indicators. He urged the National Government to expedite the provision of devices and kits for the 200 CHPs who were not included in the initial rollout.

The Governor reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening collaboration with the National Government, stressing the critical role CHPs would play in advocacy, citizen mobilization, and registration for the Social Health Insurance program launching on October 1st.
The visit concluded with a field trip, where the team had the opportunity to observe the CHPs’ work firsthand.