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Framing the Argument to Broaden Kenya’s Limited Fiscal Space for Health Financing by Introducing Zakat

Volume 5 - Issue 5

Laila Abdul Latif*

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    • Doctoral Researcher at Cardiff Law School, University of Nairobi, Kenya

    *Corresponding author: Laila Abdul Latif, Doctoral Researcher at Cardiff Law School, University of Nairobi, Kenya

Received: June 11, 2018;   Published: June 20, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.05.001262

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Abstract

Finance is, as it were, the stomach of the country, from which all other organs take their tone. One such organ is the public healthcare sector. Healthcare financing in Kenya continues to remain underfunded. The problem of limited finances is not new, it flows out of Kenya’s colonial past and government’s arguments are clothed in clichés: the budget is not sufficient to meet all financing needs for the country and so, health spending must be limited. At independence, Kenya targeted growth as the primary driver of development and relegated spending on healthcare until growth was stabilised. This political ideology framed as African Socialism that explains directing finances towards economic growth at the expense of healthcare financing has resulted in a health sector that is unevenly distributed to favour urban areas at the expense of the poor rural and suffers from a dearth of essential medicines, and unavailable dispensaries and health centres at local community levels. The health budget since 2010 has also been regressing with government placing reliance on user fees and out of pocket payments for health needs to be covered. The current revenue streams are incapable of generating additional taxes without burdening the poor. At the global level there are calls for alternative health financing strategies. This paper responds to that call by identifying a potential revenue base for the Kenyan government: zakat.

Keywords: Budget; Colonisation; Domestic Resource Mobilisation; Fiscal Law; Health Financing; Islamic Law; Kenya; Zakat

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