DETERMINANTS OF PROVISION OF PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES TO ASYLUM SEEKERS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA
DETERMINANTS OF PROVISION OF PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES TO ASYLUM SEEKERS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA
Beatrice Mumbi Gikonyo - Student, Master of Arts, Public policy and Administration Of Kenyatta University
Felix Kiruthu - Lecturer, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Globally, up to 59% of asylum seekers live in urban areas as opposed to camps and rural areas. A collaborative strategic plan to provide individuals with quality healthcare that is safe and non-discriminatory irrespective of one’s immigration status formulated in 2011 guaranteed asylum seekers access to the publicly provided healthcare facilities as their Kenyan neighbors. The objective of public provision of social services is mainly to deliver social protection to the poor and vulnerable and public officers are faced with the task of providing limited services to a population with varying health needs from different backgrounds and immigration status. This research aimed to establish the determinants of provision of public health care services to asylum seekers in Nairobi City, Kenya. That is, by determining the influence of possession of legal identification documents, official guidelines, and language barriers on the provision of health care services to asylum seekers settled in Dagoretti South Sub-County. iThe istudy iwas iguided iby ithe Principal-Agent and Bureaucracy theories. The choice of research design was descriptive research. The targeted population were public officers in the public health facilities in Dagoretti South Sub-County. The study targeted 8 public healthcare facilities with a total population of 148. The census method was used and therefore all the 148 officers were included in the study sample. The data in the current study was from primary and secondary sources. Primary data was obtained using self-directed, semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative and qualitative data was obtained using self-directed, semi - structured interviews. Prior to the final analysis, the study carried out a pilot research. Quantitative data was collected and presented in the form of descriptive statistics such as amounts, means/averages, standard deviations, and percentages, among others, while inferential statistics measured the relationship and magnitude between variables. Inferential statistics determined the causation between the predictor and the predicted variable. Qualitative information was dissected utilizing content investigation and the outcomes were presented in themes. The findings indicated that legal identification documents (β=0.288, p=0.001) and official guidelines (β=0.243, p=0.003) had a positive and significant relationship with the provision of healthcare services in Nairobi City County. However, language barriers and the provision of healthcare services in Nairobi City County were negatively and significantly related (β=-0.312, p=0.020). iBased ion ifindings: ithe istudy iconcluded ithat it is critical for asylum seekers to have identification documents to access publicly provided health care services. Therefore, provision of identification documentation should be timely, less tedious, and easy. Similarly, official guidelines were found to enable access to public healthcare services and greater understanding of the same among health workers would positively benefit asylum seekers. The study also established the need for the public health facilities to have official translators or alternative arrangements for translation services, and adequate resourcing of public health facilities.
