President William Ruto has defended his administration’s decision to replace the Linda Mama program with the Linda Jamii initiative, dismissing criticism from his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta that the government is eroding past gains.
Ruto noted that Linda Jamii has expanded healthcare beyond maternal services to cover the entire family as part of efforts to achieve universal health coverage.
“Linda Mama was good, Linda Jamii is obviously better. It is an improvement from just delivery for mothers. We have now improved it to cover prenatal, the delivery itself, and postnatal. It’s no longer targeting ‘Mama’, it’s targeting the ‘Jamii’,”Ruto said.
The President added that the new package under the Social Health Authority (SHA) draws directly from the lessons of the Jubilee-era scheme.
“We should be a bit magnanimous to him (Uhuru Kenyatta). Linda Mama was a great programme, we developed it under the Jubilee administration and because of the lessons we learnt we designed the Linda Jamii programme,” he said.
Ruto said the new scheme has not only expanded benefits but also doubled payouts, now ranging between Ksh10,000 and Ksh30,000.
The President’s remarks come days after Uhuru faulted the scrapping of the Linda Mama program, accusing the Kenya Kwanza administration of abandoning proven policies that worked for Kenyans.
Ruto spoke at Umma University in Kajiado County where he commissioned the Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Complex, a 10-storey building designed to serve over 10,000 students at a cost of Ksh1.4 billion.
He further stated that the government will not waver in its efforts to roll out the e-procurement system, which he said is expected to cut government costs by up to 40%.
“E-procurement is going to cut our costs by up to 40%. The government of Indonesia worked with us on the program so that if a pencil costs Ksh5, the government does not pay Ksh15,” said Ruto.
