During an outbreak of kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis) in Tharaka Nithi county early in the year, MSF supported the health authorities’ response by training staff, conducting awareness-raising activities and referrals, and distributing mosquito nets to mitigate the spread of the disease.

As the longest drought in Kenya in four decades intensified, we provided emergency care for children and lactating mothers with severe malnutrition in the northeast of the country. We also responded to an increase of refugees arriving in Dadaab, where they had come in search of food and water. Our teams offered basic and specialist healthcare and improved water and sanitation services in and around Dagahaley camp.

In August, our teams treated people injured during general elections-related violence in Nairobi and Homa Bay. As the year ended, we also responded to sporadic cholera outbreaks, setting up treatment centres and providing training, logistical support and health promotion, as well as patient care.

Throughout the year, we continued to increase access to healthcare for marginalised youth and adolescents. In Mombasa, we supported the provision of comprehensive, youth-friendly medical services in health facilities and communities.

In response to chronic urban violence in Eastlands, a suburb of Nairobi, we offered emergency and sexual and reproductive healthcare at our youth-friendly clinic, and in four sexual violence clinics integrated in public facilities. We also ran an emergency call centre and ambulance services in Eastlands.

In Kiambu county, we expanded access to opioid substitution therapy, comprehensive healthcare and psychosocial support for people who use heroin through a one-stop clinic and two other facilities.

In Homa Bay, we supported the county referral hospital’s adult medical wards by providing staff, treatment and follow-up, and scaled up treatment for non-communicable diseases in local health facilities. Meanwhile, we handed over our paediatric, adolescent and advanced HIV treatment activities to local partners.