Kenya’s Container Clinics Failure: A Narrative Analysis of Newspaper Articles

The Kenyan “container clinics” project was conceptualized in 2015, with an intent to expand health service delivery in urban slums and rural Kenya. The project was awarded to Estama Investment Limited by the Kenya Ministry of Health. The clinic timeline from conception to delivery to failure has been documented by Kenyan newspapers. To understand the role of corruption chapter 1 explores corruption in both Africa and other developing nations and associated risk factors. Chapter 2 explores the clinical container project in Kenya via an analysis of newspaper articles on the topic with reference to sentiment. A further content and thematic analysis is presented in Chapter 2 supported by quotes aligned to the Kenyan clinical container timeline. Such a study has not been previously undertaken. Aim: The aims of this thesis was to conduct a content and thematic analysis of local Kenyan newspapers that examined the Estama Investment Limited contract to supply container clinics and factors across the value chain and over time that led to the failure of the clinics. Methods: Using NVivo, a content and thematic analysis was conducted on available newspaper media coverage related to container clinics and associated thematic factors associated with failure. Six pre-defined themes including timing and announcement of the clinic’s project, initial purpose of the clinics, reasons for failure, sentiment over time of the project, cost, and pragmatic recommendations. Results: Initial searches revealed 57 newspaper articles mentioning mobile container clinics and related subjects. 80.7% (n = 46) of screened newspapers met the inclusion criteria. A total of 102 statements were extracted and analysed from the 46 shortlisted newspaper articles. The mobile clinic scandal was examined under 6 themes described in the methods. Analysis showed that funding misappropriation accounted for the failure of the container clinic project. Primarily, later stage reporting confirmed negative sentiment focused on the political influence on the initiation and implementation of the project and associated mismanagement of public funds and lack of transparency. Conclusions: The findings from this thesis highlighted the need for transparency, accountability, and integrity in government procurement processes to prevent loss of public funds and provides opportunities for a case study for large scale implementation of health service offerings in low resource countries. It is however difficult when external countries are engaged to track accountability.