The Kisumu County government has signed an agreement with world leader in instant logistics, Zipline, to deliver blood products and medical supplies using drones.

The deal will see Zipline invest 150 million shillings to establish an operations and distribution center in Kisumu to facilitate the exercise.

Zipline’s Senior Vice President for Africa, Daniel Marfo, who signed the agreement with Deputy Governor of Kisumu, Dr. Mathews Owili, said the hub, with capacity to serve all 14 counties in the bloc region of the lake (LREB), will be accelerated to guarantee access to health care for people in danger of death. diseases and vaccines is reached quickly.

Marfo said that once the hub is in place, the company will leverage its warehousing and drone technology to ensure timely delivery of drugs and other medical products to healthcare facilities in the region to support the government’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) program.

“We have already received clearance from the Ministry of Defense and are currently working with the Civil Aviation Authority of Kenya to obtain a license to operate in the country,” he said.

Marfo added that as part of corporate social responsibility, it will provide up to one million Covid-19 vaccines free of charge to help accelerate vaccination.

Health facilities, he disclosed, will place orders to the operations center via email, SMS or WhatsApp, after which deliveries will be made within 45 minutes covering a distance of up to 80 kilometres.

Zipline, he added, has successfully rolled out similar initiatives in Ghana, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and the United States of America (USA), adding that the technology was efficient and respectful. of the environment.

Apart from medicines and non-pharmaceutical deliveries, the company, he added, has also rolled out the delivery of semen and other agricultural products to enhance food security.

“We have rolled out pig and bull semen delivery in Rwanda and hope to roll out the same here once we are fully operational to boost food security,” he said.

Kisumu, he added, will act as a pilot for the lake region before the partnership is expanded to cover other counties serving up to 1,250 health facilities.

The Deputy Governor of Kisumu County said the partnership will address inefficiencies in health systems supply by ensuring commodities are delivered on time.

Using drone technology, he added that remote and hard-to-reach areas will be covered to facilitate access to quality medical care in the county. “We have conducted awareness programs and even tried to redistribute medical supplies, but it is still not effective,” he said.

The project, he added, will further reduce the costs incurred in distributing the products across the county.

Speaking at the same occasion, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who is also Chairman of LREB, hailed the initiative saying it will go a long way towards improving service delivery in the health and care sectors. agriculture that are decentralized.

The initiative, he added, will also help county governments with inventory management to reduce theft and waste. “It will help us get what we need. Currently we have a lot of drugs worth billions of shillings in our stores that have expired,” he said.

By Peter K’opiyo and Chris Mahandara