Over 20 journalists in Mombasa County are undergoing an investigative journalism course on health reporting.
The four-day training workshop was organised by the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) with support from the United States Agency for International Development [USAID). It will be concluded on Friday 15th this month.
Speaking to journalists from the Royal Court Hotel during the kick-off of the training workshop yesterday, Coast region MCK Coordinator Maureen Mudi said the project targets journalists from five counties..
“the project is starting in Mombasa county and will finish in Kakamega after Kilifi, isiolo, and Nakuru counties.the purpose of the training is to guide the journalists to work within their ethics,” said Mudi.
Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK)’s Program Coordinator ,Lorna Seneiya Sempele said United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was funding the project under Transparency International and that AMWIK was the implementing partner.
The training will cover Health Reporting utilizing the USAID USAWA Training Manual; Fact Checking; Data Visualization from Government Accounts and Budgets (OAG, OCOB, Procurement); and Digital Content Creation.
“It is all about capacity building for the journalists on investigative reporting.We found that our journalists need a lot of capacity building because Kenyans are facing a lot of challenges while accessing health services, but nobody is airing their grievances ,” Simpele said.
Simpele urged the journalists to practice the knowledge gained from this workshop to hold government accountable, expose the rots in the health sector and appealed to health officials from the county government to cooperate with journalists working in the area.
Most journalists at the training workshop said they were facing challenges in accessing data from county government officials, hence hindering them from documenting and telling stories on health.
Simpele further urged the journalists not to fear to tell stories on the rampant corruption in government, negligence, shortage of drugs in health facilities, and doctors running parallel facilities using government resources. NHIF to SHA challenges faced by Kenyans, among other stories, as long as they work within their ethics.
In 2023, President William Ruto signed four bills into law to transform Kenya’s healthcare system.
This move was intended to improve preventive and promotive health services, streamline technology adoption in healthcare, give public health facilities more autonomy and to replace the National Health Insurance Fund with Social Health Authority that manages three funds,
A report recently released by the Oditor General revealed that Mombasa county had spent over 78 million shillings that could not be accounted for.
SOCIAL HEALTH Authority (SHA) board CEO Elijah Wachira was yesterday sent on compulsory leave, and Financial Services Director Robert Ingasira named the acting boss.
The workshop will enter its day two today.
Written By: Peter Maseke.
