The Cabinet has endorsed a new Bill aimed at streamlining Kenya’s healthcare sector by tackling fraud, poor regulation, and widespread impunity that continue to threaten patient safety.
The Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, seeks to introduce strict standards and a unified quality assurance framework across all health facilities, laboratories, and ambulance services.
The proposed law is designed to close long-standing loopholes that have allowed unqualified and fraudulent providers to operate with minimal oversight.
According to a dispatch from the Cabinet meeting chaired by President William Ruto at State House, the Bill responds to serious regulatory weaknesses that have undermined healthcare delivery for years.
“This lack of clear standards, coupled with weak oversight and collusion among facilities, regulators, and practitioners, has left patients vulnerable and eroded accountability.”
The legislation will also create a powerful Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Authority, tasked with enforcing national care standards, overseeing implementation, and monitoring performance.
The Authority will also ensure that all facilities are properly licensed, registered, and accredited before offering any services.
The legislation introduces mandatory quality improvement plans at the facility level and sets clear criteria for the provision of emergency medical services.
It also includes stronger enforcement of patient rights, with the aim of restoring public confidence in the health system.
The Bill will now proceed through the necessary legislative process before it can be implemented.
