Maternal Health Financing and Postpartum Detentions: Political Will as an Underlying Determinant For Respectful Maternity Care in Kenya

Abstract

Maternal health financing is one of the critical aspects of health financing that the Kenyan government has focused on from as early as 1965. Over the years, through several policy initiatives, the government has demonstrated its commitment to providing free access to maternal healthcare services, especially for the poor, although with limited success. Like many other government projects, the implementation of free maternity care initiatives has been full of political, technical and financial challenges, which, as of 2024, have taken a turn for the worst with the government’s 2024/25 national budget slashing the budgetary allocation for free maternal health care by half.  Presently, the maternal healthcare financing model either prevents women from accessing maternity care services due to the high cost of care or places them at risk of postpartum detention and abuse in hospitals. This article, through a qualitative methodological approach involving the analysis of secondary data collected from various sources available via desktop research, therefore demonstrates that legal recognition of rights without equitable health financing plans and political will does not address the challenges associated with inequitable access to respectful maternity care.