Duale Dismisses Claims Of Personal Medical Records Being Accessed By The U.S.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has refuted claims that Kenya will share citizens’ personal medical records with the United States under the newly signed Kenya–US Health Cooperation Framework.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Duale maintained that the agreement only permits the exchange of aggregated health data, insisting that no unique personal identifiers—including individual medical files—will be accessible to the US government.
The deal, which will run for seven years, has triggered public concern over the scope of information set to be shared.
Amid growing scrutiny, the government moved to reassure Kenyans that the framework strictly adheres to constitutional provisions on the right to privacy, the Health Act of 2017, and the Data Protection Act of 2019.
Duale dismissed what he termed “misleading allegations” suggesting that the US would enjoy blanket access to all data collected in local health facilities. He stressed that Kenya retains full data sovereignty, noting that the government will determine what information is collected, why it is collected, how it is secured, and who is authorized to access it.
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Concerns had been raised following a clause in the framework indicating that the two governments would negotiate a separate data-sharing agreement to support its implementation. Duale clarified that the shared data will strictly consist of totals, trends, performance indicators and system-level metrics—excluding ID numbers, addresses, or personal medical records.
The framework also establishes a process-metric audit mechanism, through which the government will provide the US with information necessary to verify performance in up to 5% of randomly selected or mutually identified health facilities, clinics, laboratories, or programs.
Under the new partnership, the US government is expected to inject Ksh208 billion into Kenya’s health sector over the next five years, with an additional two-year period allocated for reporting, accountability, and periodic review.
