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President William Ruto on Tuesday chaired a Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi, during which far-reaching policy decisions were made across key sectors, including health.
A major highlight was the endorsement of the Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, which aims to reform the health sector by eliminating entrenched impunity and malpractices.
The Bill seeks to address systemic fraud, regulatory loopholes, and conflicts of interest that have long undermined healthcare delivery and eroded public trust. It specifically targets the unchecked licensing and operation of unqualified and fraudulent health facilities.
President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi on July 29, 2025
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Cabinet noted that persistent failures in the health system were largely due to the absence of clear standards, weak oversight, and collusion between regulators, facilities, and practitioners. These gaps have left patients vulnerable and stripped the sector of accountability.
To fix this, the Bill introduces a unified quality assurance framework, enforces strict mandatory licensing, registration, and accreditation for all health facilities, laboratories, and ambulance services, and mandates the development of quality improvement plans at the facility level.
A central component of the legislation is the creation of an independent Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Authority, which will:
Enforce national care standards
Oversee implementation
Monitor performance across the sector.
The proposed law also codifies patient rights and introduces clear criteria for emergency medical services, as part of the government’s broader effort to tackle the root causes of health sector corruption and deliver safe, effective, and high-standard healthcare in line with universal health coverage goals.
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Cases of Malpractice and Challenges facing Quality Healthcare Delivery
Despite constitutional guarantees and the Patient’s Rights Charter of 2013, many Kenyans continue to face systemic medical malpractice and healthcare failures.
The Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, has been introduced as a response to these persistent issues that have undermined public trust.
A major concern is the lack of enforcement of existing patient protection laws. Regulatory bodies like the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) are under-resourced, and delays in complaint resolution are common.
Most patients are unaware of their rights, and those who are often find justice inaccessible due to bureaucratic hurdles and legal costs.
The right to emergency medical treatment, enshrined in law, is frequently denied. Many hospitals require payment before offering care, leading to avoidable deaths.
Meanwhile, health-tech platforms and telemedicine have grown rapidly, but regulation hasn’t kept up. This has created a legal vacuum, raising concerns over patient data privacy and the quality of digital care.
The fragmented regulatory structure, with multiple bodies overseeing different aspects of healthcare, has led to coordination failures and accountability gaps.
Common forms of malpractice include misdiagnosis, surgical errors, maternal and newborn care negligence, medication errors, and lack of informed consent. These failures are often due to poor training, equipment shortages, or outright negligence.
Kenya has witnessed several shocking incidents of malpractice, including the KNH brain surgery mix-up (2018), the Pumwani Maternity scandal, and Alex Madaga’s death (2015) after being denied ICU treatment.
In 2025, a woman was awarded Sh157 million after undergoing a hysterectomy without her informed consent, exposing both institutional and practitioner-level negligence.
The proposed bill aims to close these loopholes, enforce standards, and restore faith in the healthcare system by protecting patients and ensuring accountability across the sector.