The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, in partnership with IOM and the World Health Organization, hosted a National Consultation on Migration and Health to reach common consensus on securing quality and equitable health services for migrants and mobile populations in Kenya.

The National Consultation, held in Mombasa from 4 to 6 May 2011, was attended by various ministries, including Immigration and Registration of Persons, Foreign Affairs, Special Programmes and the National AIDS Control Council. Attendees also included non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, migrant representatives and embassies.

Migrants and mobile populations face many obstacles in accessing essential health care services. This is due to a number of factors including irregular immigration status, language barriers, a lack of migrant-inclusive health policies, and inaccessibility of services due to inopportune opening times. Such disparities are impacting upon the well-being of migrants, mobile populations, and Kenya as a whole. The consultation challenged current inequities to draw a common action plan for providing accessible, affordable, and non-discriminatory health care.

The National Consultation also acted as a platform to materialize the World Health Assembly Resolution 61.17 on Health of Migrants, a resolution passed in 2008 by the 61st World Health Assembly which calls upon Member States to promote migrant-sensitive health policies, ensure equitable access to health promotion and to urge information sharing and best practices for meeting the health needs of migrants.

Recommendations from the consultation include: Mainstreaming migration and health into all legislation, policies and programmes that are related to health and development, as well as into the National Strategic Plan for the health sector in Kenya; Advocating for increased resource allocation in order to implement effective migration and health initiatives; and Developing effective mechanisms to measure and evaluate migration and health initiatives.