The Governments of the United States and the Republic of Kenya today signed a five-year, $2.5 billion Health Cooperation Framework that outlines a comprehensive vision to save lives, strengthen Kenya’s health system, and make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Kenya is the first African country to successfully negotiate a new health partnership with the United States.

Under the Framework, the United States plans to provide up to $1.6 billion over the next five years to support priority health programs in Kenya including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, maternal and child health, polio eradication, disease surveillance, and infectious disease outbreak response and preparedness. Over the five-year period, the Government of Kenya pledges to increase domestic health expenditures by $850 million to gradually assume greater financial responsibility as U.S. support decreases over the course of the framework.

Statements from the U.S. Government

“We are delighted to sign this landmark agreement with Kenya, a longstanding American ally. As Secretary Rubio has emphasized, foreign assistance is a tool of American diplomacy and statecraft—and every dollar we spend on it must be directly justified on those terms. When developing the dozens of America First Global Health Strategy bilateral agreements we will sign in the coming weeks, we always start with the principle that American sovereign resources should be used to bolster our allies and should never benefit groups unfriendly to the United States and our national interests,” said Jeremy P. Lewin, Senior Official for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs & Religious Freedom (F). “But within the four corners of these detailed agreements, our expert technical teams have kept a laser focus on maximizing health outcomes, deploying resources more prudently toward high-impact programs, and creating positive incentives for recipient country self-reliance and local control. We appreciate Kenya’s partnership and look forward to our continued work together advancing their health goals and our broader shared interests.”

“Over the past two months, we have been engaging in very productive discussions with governments around the world about how we can maximize the impact of our health foreign assistance to save lives and build resilient local health systems while simultaneously promoting American interests abroad,” said Brad Smith, Senior Advisor for the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State. “Our agreement with Kenya is a model for the types of bilateral health arrangements the United States will be entering into with dozens of countries over the coming weeks and months.”

Statements from the Kenyan Government

“The Kenyan government is already expanding essential health services to all Kenyans and increasing domestic health financing through the Social Health Authority (SHA). Kenyan and United States’ commitments in the Framework are thus fully aligned and mutually beneficial,” said His Excellency Kenya’s President Dr. William S. Ruto. “Kenya welcomes this partnership and the co-investment it represents,” said Hon. Aden Duale, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health. “The engagements which began on 27th August 2025 finally result in this signing today. It has been a great honor leading the Kenyan team in the negotiations with the American team. I can confirm we promoted the best interests of our people ensuring critical service certainty as well as alignment with Kenya government agenda in spirit and letter of every paragraph. This cooperation framework is quite a departure from the past and will have a lasting impact on health for all,” said Dr. Ouma Oluga, Principal Secretary for Medical Services.

Overview

The Framework contains a number of important and innovative provisions that will help facilitate long-term sustainability of Kenya’s health system including:

• Commodities: The procurement of commodities is expected to be transitioned from the U.S. government to the Government of Kenya gradually over the five-year period, while strengthening Kenya’s supply chain systems and institutions.
• Frontline Health Workers: Frontline health workers currently funded by the U.S. government will be mapped to the cadres of health workers that can be employed by the Kenyan government, and those cadres of health workers will be transitioned over to the Kenyan government payroll. Kenya has made strengthening its health workforce a key priority in achieving Universal Health Coverage.
• Data Systems: Funding will support the scale-up of Kenya’s health data systems to ensure key programmatic data for HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, polio, and disease outbreaks can be tracked at scale over the long-term; this includes accelerating the national rollout of Kenya’s electronic medical record systems.
• Faith-Based and Private Sector Providers: The Kenyan government, with support from the U.S government, will develop reimbursement mechanisms