Gov't to scale down Visa, work permit requirements for missionaries

President William Ruto has said says the national government will review and scale down Visa and work permit requirements for missionaries in order to ease their operations.

The President spoke on Thursday during the commissioning of a state-of-the-art cardio-thoracic centre at the Tenwek Mission Hospital in Bomet County.

He commended religious organisations for working with the national government to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to Kenyans over the years.

"We invite more public-private partnerships to boost investments in the development of healthcare infrastructure and the expansion of services," he said.

The facility, one of its kind in East Africa, was put up with funding from the African Gospel Church, World Gospel Mission (WGM) and Samaritan's Purse.

Notable leaders present at the function were Samaritan Purse's chief operations officer Edward Graham, WGM president Dan Schafer and Tenwek Mission Hospital board of directors chairman Rev. Robert Lang'at.

At the same time, the President urged Kenyans to continue registering with the Social Health Authority, saying they would enjoy more healthcare benefits than they did under the defunct National Health Insurance Fund.

"Primary healthcare is now free at all dispensaries and health centres, as well as selected hospitals, while ambulance and emergency services are available nationwide free of charge," he said.

Further, he said more than 13 million Kenyans have registered under SHA in the past month, and expressed confidence that migration from NHIF would be completed in the next three months.