Promoting the Right to Health in Kenya Essay 

1.1. Background to the study

The Constitution of the Republic of Kenya provides for one’s right to health.

It states that every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to health care services including reproductive health care.

For one to wholly appreciate the magnitude of this right, it is imperative to have a basic understanding of the term ‘health’. The preamble of the 1946 World Health Organization’s (WHO) Constitution defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. It goes on further to state that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. This right is broad in its scope and entails the right to access essential medicines. Promoting the Right to Health in Kenya Essay Paper

The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Article 12, states that the steps taken by the state parties to the present covenant (such as Kenya) to achieve the full realization of the right to health shall include those necessary for the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases and the creation of conditions which would assure to all, medical services and medical attention in the event of sickness. This right[2] was expounded by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment No. 14 on the ‘Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health’ paragraph 12, to include access to essential medicines. In fact, it went further to explain access to essential medicines to include three main elements. First is the ‘physical accessibility’ whereby, the good or service must be within the safe physical reach of majority of the population. Second is the ‘economic accessibility’ whereby the good or service must be affordable to a majority of the population and third, ‘informational accessibility’ whereby the right to seek, receive and impart information concerning health issues is safeguarded