The image below is a screenshot of a post on Facebook, appearing to have been shared initially on the Facebook group ‘Pregnant and Nursing Mums Kenya’. The post claims that the Linda Mama initiative has been scraped off.
Background
Linda Mama (Swahili for Protect mothers) is a free maternity care programme introduced by the government in 2013 and rebranded as ‘Linda Mama’ in 2016. The program provides cost-free care to expectant mothers for antenatal, neonatal and postnatal care, with an aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in Kenya.
According to the Ministry of Health, by 2020 the government had disbursed over 11.6 billion shillings towards the Linda Mama programme. The programme mainly targets women who cannot afford maternal health services and caters for pregnancy, delivery, post-delivery and outpatient baby care.
Verification
A dedicated Google search (archived) for “linda mama” in the major reputable media houses yields no results. The government scrapping the Linda Mama programme would have most likely been a news item in the mainstream media. Piga Firimbi also reached out to the Health Permanent Secretary, Susan Mochache, who has championed the programme before, but she refuted the claim.
Verdict
The claim that Linda Mama programme has been halted is FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.
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