Kenya Seeks Better Access to Antibiotics Without Fueling Drug Resistance | Dawan Africa

Kenya , November 02, 2026 – Kenya is talking to a private company about ways to get more life-saving antibiotics to patients while fighting the rise of drug-resistant infections.

Principal Secretary for Medical Services Dr Ouma Oluga met Aranda Chief Executive Dr Angus L. C. O’Shea at his office. The two sides discussed how to improve access to essential antibiotics and strengthen controls against antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. AMR happens when bacteria stop responding to the medicines meant to kill them. It makes common infections harder and sometimes impossible to treat.

The meeting continues talks the two leaders began in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Aranda is already looking at Kenya’s health system. The company has held talks with KEMSA, the Social Health Authority, and the county governments of Nairobi, Kiambu and Murang’a.

Dr Oluga made the Ministry’s position clear. Expanding access to antibiotics must go hand in hand with better testing, careful prescribing, and strong monitoring. He said any partnership must work inside existing national and county systems. It should not create new parallel structures that bypass KEMSA or the Social Health Authority. He also stressed the need for good value for money and lasting results that support Kenya’s push for universal health coverage.

Many Kenyan families already know the problem. A child with a chest infection may need a specific antibiotic, but the right medicine is sometimes missing from public facilities. At the same time, overuse of antibiotics in the past has made some of those medicines less effective. Finding a way to get the right drugs to patients without making resistance worse is the real challenge behind these talks.