KENYA

We have been working to prevent blindness and restore sight in Kenya since 2007. Uncorrected refractive error remains the leading cause of vision impairment in Kenya. Trachoma is also a major concern, with an estimated 30 per cent of the population across Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas suffering, from this painful, bacterial eye infection. Left untreated, trachoma leads to irreversible blindness.   

We are collaborating with Kenya’s national and county governments and other partners to improve access to eye health care and to reach the country’s most remote and underserved communities. Across the country, our 11 eye units ensure that patients from surrounding remote communities can access primary eye health care and that patients can be referred to our partner hospitals for more advanced care. 

In 2021, we declared 15 villages in the Kamariny Ward of Elgeyo Marakwet County avoidable blindness-free. With a total of 30 villages now declared free of conditions that lead to avoidable blindness, together we are on track to achieve our goal to declare 50 villages in the area avoidable blindness-free. This has been made possible by door-to-door surveys conducted by our community health volunteers.  

Also in 2021, we launched a school eye health program in in Uasin Gishu County through support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Child Blindness Program. Over 70,000 students and nearly 1,900 teachers were screened for eye conditions using the Peek Acuity app in the first year of the two-year project.    

We are currently distributing antibiotics in Narok County to treat and reduce transmission of trachoma, a painful bacterial infection which causes irreversible blindness if left untreated. In 2021, our team distributed antibiotics more than 460,000 people, covering 90 per cent of the population.  

The next Mass Drug Administration (MDA) has been planned for the last quarter of 2022.  

Our trachoma elimination projects are designed to implement all four components of the World Health Organization-recommended SAFE strategy:  

• Surgery to treat advanced cases of trachoma;  
• Antibiotics to eliminate infection, which includes Mass Drug Administrations (MDA) to treat and prevent trachoma in targeted regions;
• Facial cleanliness; and  
• Environmental improvement such as wells, boreholes and latrines.