For decades, health information in Kenya has largely been captured and stored in physical files, patient cards, paper registers, referral forms and folders kept at health facilities. While these records have played an important role in delivering care, an increasingly digital health system is creating a new opportunity: moving from fragmented paper-based records to secure, accessible and patient-centred digital health information.
The My Data, Our Health Campaign, led by the Health NGOs Network (HENNET), seeks to place citizens at the centre of this transformation by creating awareness on how health data is collected, managed, accessed and used, and why every person should have a voice in how their health information is handled.
From Paper Files to Digital Health Records
The migration from physical files to digital health systems represents more than a technological upgrade. It is a fundamental change in how health information can support patients, healthcare workers, policymakers and the health system as a whole.
Digital systems can make it easier for authorized healthcare providers to access relevant patient information, reduce the risks associated with lost or damaged physical files, improve continuity of care and generate more timely information for decision-making.
The Digital Health Agency (DHA) has a critical role in advancing Kenya’s digital health agenda, including the development and implementation of digital health infrastructure and platforms designed to strengthen the country’s health information ecosystem.
For citizens, this transformation means that health information is increasingly becoming something that can move with the patient rather than remaining locked away in a physical file at one health facility.
Your Health Data Is More Than Information
A patient’s health data can include medical history, diagnoses, laboratory results, prescriptions, immunisation records, appointments, insurance information and other highly personal information.
As Kenya moves towards more interconnected digital health systems, citizens need to understand what happens to this information.
- Who collects it?
- Who can access it?
- Why is it being collected?
- How is it protected?
- How can a patient exercise control over its use?
These questions should not be left exclusively to technology experts, healthcare providers or policymakers. They are questions for every Kenyan.
This is why My Data, Our Health seeks to make the digital health conversation understandable, accessible and relevant to ordinary citizens—ensuring that people understand both the opportunities and responsibilities that come with digital health.
Putting People at the Centre
Digital transformation should never become an end in itself. Technology must ultimately improve people’s experience of healthcare.
A successful digital health ecosystem should help a patient access their information, understand their health journey, make informed decisions and receive better-coordinated care.
It should also support healthcare workers with timely and reliable information while enabling policymakers to make decisions based on accurate evidence.
However, the benefits of digitalization must go hand in hand with strong safeguards for privacy, security, consent, accountability and equitable access.
The question is therefore not simply whether Kenya should digitize health data. The bigger question is how we ensure that digital health works for everyone.
Every person, regardless of age, gender, location, disability, socioeconomic status or level of digital literacy, should be able to understand and benefit from Kenya’s digital health transformation.
HENNET’s Role in the Digital Health Conversation
As a network bringing together civil society organizations working across Kenya’s health sector, HENNET believes that digital health transformation must be accompanied by meaningful citizen and civil society participation.
Our role is not simply to celebrate the migration from paper to digital systems. It is to help ensure that citizens understand the transformation and that their voices are part of the conversation.
Through My Data, Our Health, HENNET is positioning civil society as a bridge between communities, government, digital health institutions, healthcare providers and other stakeholders.
We will create platforms for dialogue, awareness and public engagement around:
- Digital access to health data: helping citizens understand how digital health systems can improve access to their health information.
- Data rights, privacy and consent: promoting awareness of citizens’ rights and responsibilities around personal health information.
- Citizen participation and accountability: ensuring that communities and civil society have a meaningful voice in Kenya’s digital health transformation.
From Digital Transformation to Digital Trust
The success of Kenya’s digital health journey will ultimately depend on public trust.
People are more likely to embrace digital health systems when they understand how they work and have confidence that their information will be handled responsibly.
Digital health must therefore be accompanied by digital trust. That means transparent systems, responsible data governance, appropriate safeguards, meaningful consent, accountability and accessible information for citizens.
It also means ensuring that digitalization does not create new inequalities for people who lack smartphones, internet connectivity, digital literacy or access to quality healthcare.
A Shared Responsibility
The migration of health data from physical files to digital systems is changing the way healthcare information can be collected, stored, shared and used in Kenya.
But this transformation cannot be left to institutions alone.
Government has a responsibility to build secure and accountable systems. Healthcare providers have a responsibility to use information responsibly. Technology actors have a responsibility to design inclusive and trustworthy platforms. Civil society has a responsibility to amplify citizens’ voices. And citizens have a right to understand and participate in decisions affecting their health data.
That is the spirit of My Data, Our Health.
HENNET believes that Kenya’s digital health future should not only be about moving data from paper to screens. It should be about moving health systems closer to the people they serve.
Because health data belongs in conversations that put people first.
My Data. Our Health. Our Voice.
Through the My Data, Our Health Campaign, HENNET will continue working with communities, young people, government institutions, digital health stakeholders and civil society to build awareness, encourage dialogue and strengthen citizen participation in Kenya’s digital health transformation.
The future of health is digital, but it must remain human, inclusive and accountable.