Ruto Responds to Uhuru’s Criticism on Linda Mama Program

President William Ruto has responded to former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent remarks criticizing the Kenya Kwanza administration’s changes to the Linda Mama program.

Speaking at the Jubilee Party Special National Delegates Conference on Saturday, September 27, Kenyatta accused President Ruto’s administration of dismantling key achievements from his tenure, including the maternal health initiative.

Launched in 2013, the Linda Mama program provided free health insurance for pregnant women and their newborns, offering comprehensive services from antenatal to postnatal care

However, the program has since been replaced by the Linda Jamii package under the Social Health Authority (SHA), which aims to extend coverage to entire families and enhance maternal health services.

Ruto Responds to Uhuru’s Criticism on Linda Mama program

Addressing the concerns, President Ruto, while speaking at Umma University on Tuesday, September 30, instead defended Uhuru, emphasising that the Linda Jamii program was designed from lessons “learnt from Linda Mama.”

“Maybe use this occasion to the defence my former boss, the former President (Uhuru). To defend him, we should be a bit more magnanimous toward him. The Linda Mama program was a great program that we developed. Under the leadership of President Uhuru, we learnt a lot from the Linda Mama program,” Ruto said.

Unlike the Linda Mama program, which primarily focused on the expectant mother, Linda Jamii extends coverage to include the mother, her spouse, and other children.

The package covers a full spectrum of maternal and newborn health services—antenatal care, delivery, postnatal care, and essential newborn treatments. It also includes advanced medical services such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and High Dependency Unit (HDU) support for both mother and infant in the event of complications.

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Linda Jamii program

A significant addition to the new program is the provision of Anti-D serum treatment, an essential intervention for Rhesus-negative mothers to help prevent potential complications in subsequent pregnancies.

“Because of the experiences, because of the lessons learnt, from the Linda Mama program, we designed the Linda Jamii program, which was an improvement. Linda Mama was good; Linda Jamii is obviously better. And therefore, it is an improvement from what it was in terms of the scope from just the delivery by the mothers, which was the primary target of Linda Mama. We have now improved it to cover pre-natal, that is, before delivery, the delivery itself, post-natal and it is no longer targeting the mother but the community,” President Ruto added.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale while speaking during the same event had emphasized that “the benefits of Linda Mama have not been scrapped.”

He explained that previously, mothers were given Ksh2,000 to Ksh5,000 and could only access services at dispensaries and health centers.

“No one has scrapped Linda Mama. But what have we done? We have enhanced the cover of the mother and added the family, the children.” Duale said. 

“And if you think Linda Mama was a big thing for you, how come it has not reduced the maternal mortality rate in our country?” 

He further highlighted improvements made under the new scheme. “We have enhanced, we have introduced prenatal, postnatal delivery, and we have given the whole family coverage. Today under SHA, 627,155 mothers have delivered in Kenya.”

Uhuru’s speech

Former President Kenyatta last week expressed concern that “many of the gains of the past have been eroded,” criticizing the replacement of Linda Mama with “new, untried and untested schemes.”

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He lamented that while these new programs are being tested, “Kenyans suffer, and our progress is dragged.” Kenyatta also called for government resources to be used for the betterment of citizens rather than confrontation.

“This machine that we built was not meant to face the citizens. It was not supposed to be a source of fear and conflict with our citizens. Ilikuwa ya kulinda wananchi sio kuumiza,” the former President said.

In addition to the health debate, Kenyatta praised the youth for their role in the anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests and encouraged them to take leadership roles in shaping the country’s future.

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