KELIN, Raise Your Voice, Community Health Promoters and youth champions during a community engagement session in Kibera exploring digital health and trust in Kenya’s evolving digital health ecosystem
Transform Health Kenya and Raise Your Voice, recently convened a community engagement and capacity-building session with Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and youth champions in Kibera focused on digital health, data privacy, and strengthening community trust within Kenya’s growing digital health ecosystem. This engagement built on an earlier Transform Health Kenya capacity-building workshop on digital health that specifically targeted youth and youth-led organisations. Following that workshop, Transform Health Kenya thus supported Raise Your Voice to convene the CHPs’ engagement session, which Transform Health also attended and contributed to as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen community awareness and participation in digital health governance.
Hosted at ‘Made in Kibera Production’, the engagement created space for CHPs and community members to openly reflect on the realities of digital health implementation at the grassroots level. While digital health systems continue to expand across Kenya, the discussions highlighted that issues of trust, confidentiality, and access remain central to how communities experience these systems.
A key theme that emerged throughout the meeting was the growing concern communities have around how their personal and health information is collected, stored, and used. CHPs shared that many households fear their information could be leaked, misused, or connected to political processes, particularly in relation to digital health registration systems and the Social Health Authority (SHA) platform.
The discussions also highlighted the often-overlooked role CHPs play as frontline health workers and trusted bridges between communities and healthcare systems. Beyond collecting household data, CHPs support referrals, connect households to care, and help communities navigate healthcare services. However, participants noted that communities sometimes feel digital health processes prioritize data collection over addressing urgent health and social needs within households.
One CHP shared their reflection stating, “what you see remains confidential, but there are larger issues surrounding data systems and trust that go beyond the control of CHPs”.
The session further explored the legal and policy frameworks shaping digital health and privacy in Kenya, including Article 31 of the Constitution of Kenya on the right to privacy, the Data Protection Act (2019) and the Digital Health Act (2023).
KELIN attended the meeting as part of its broader commitment to advancing ethical, rights-based, and people-centred approaches to digital health governance in Kenya, particularly around data privacy, data protection, and the responsible collection and use of sensitive health information within communities.
The discussions reinforced the importance of ensuring that digital health systems are not only efficient and technologically advanced, but also grounded in trust, accountability, informed consent, meaningful community engagement, and strong data privacy and data protection safeguards.
Article by Shekina Plowman (she/her), MPH Black Health Candidate, University of Toronto, currently on practicum placement at KELIN.
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For more information, please contact:
Trevor Mwangi
Program Officer
Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN)Community
Kuwinda Lane, Karen C, off Langáta Road
Email: trevormwangi@kelinkenya.org
Website: https://www.kelinkenya.org
