During the meeting the CS cited the need for multi-agency involvement bringing on board the Ministries of Interior and Security, State Law Office, Transport, Health and KEMSA.

 

He said an inter–sector meeting will be held in the next three weeks to discuss the viability of the technology, which will also be launched in Rwanda on October 14, 2016.

 

The ZipLine meeting was held at the side event of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly.

 

Zipline is a Silicon Valley-based logistics company that designs, manufactures, and operates small robotic aircraft to deliver essential medical products such as blood, vaccines, in hard-to-reach communities.

 

The company seeks to partner with the Ministry of Health to use this technology to improve healthcare access.

Kenya has about 9600 active health facilities, out which about 2485 (25%) are in arid and semi – arid lands (ASAL) counties that have sparse population.

 

The use of drone technology in health has ability to distribute commodities over vast expanses that may have poor infrastructure in an efficient way in terms of cost and speed of delivery of the commodities such as vaccines, and anti – snake venom to far flung sites that may not have cold – chain equipment.

 

The CS acknowledged that the technology is viable but regulations are required to guide the use of the technology in Kenya including development of central stores in counties where drones can be launched with products for health facilities.

Source : www.health.go.ke