Modernizing Kenya’s Health Supply Chain:

In the push toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, Kenya has achieved remarkable milestones, surpassing UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets and significantly reducing the burden of HIV and TB. Yet, a persistent paradox remains: even when life-saving commodities are available nationally, rural facilities often face critical stock-outs.

The bottleneck is rarely a total lack of medicine. Instead, it often stems from the “brains” of the supply chain – the digital visibility, operational discipline, and logistics coordination required to move goods from a warehouse to a patient’s hand.

To explore how technology and public-private partnerships are shifting the needle, CIO Africa sat down with Lantos Pin, Health Supply Chain Expert and Co-founder of Logixity. Supported by the Global Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pin is at the forefront of the Logistics Marketplace, a public global good designed to bridge the gap between government needs and private-sector efficiency.

In this interview, he breaks down why infrastructure alone isn’t enough and explains how pairing real-time visibility with better planning can collapse delivery lead times.

Q: Medicine stock-outs are common in rural Kenya, but some argue that the commodities themselves are available. What is causing the delivery delays, and how significant is the impact on patients?

A: First, it’s important to recognize that Kenya has made significant health progress. The country has exceeded the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, and we’ve seen dramatic declines in HIV infections, AIDS-related deaths, and TB incidence. However, when rural facilities experience stock-outs, the issue is often that the supply chain struggles to translate national availability into on-shelf availability at the local level.

Key drivers include planning gaps where procurement and replenishment timelines remain too long – Global Fund’s OIG found these still average over 250 days. This makes last-mile planning harder and increases the likelihood of missed deliveries. We also face challenges with stock visibility and verification; gaps remain in commodity traceability from KEMSA to facility stock records. Finally, distribution needs reliable operational funding. Even when commodities exist, predictable financing and disciplined oversight are essential to execute planned delivery cycles. The impact on patients is significant, as stock-outs can mean delayed treatment initiation or interrupted therapy. The positive angle is that these are solvable, operational constraints: improving delivery cadence, proof-of-delivery discipline, and performance management can convert Kenya’s momentum into more reliable commodity access for patients in rural facilities.

Q: Can you walk me through a real-world case in Kenya (or a comparable country) where better logistics coordination measurably improved delivery times or patient outcomes? What changed, and what were the results?

A: There are examples across the continent where engaging private sector logistics providers can improve service levels and reduce cost-to-serve. An example comes from Ethiopia, where public-private sector collaboration improved logistics coordination. By digitizing facility stock levels and orders, they achieved real-time visibility and instant order receipt. They also optimized truck utilization and route planning for integrated deliveries.

By shifting from separate, bi-monthly distribution cycles to monthly integrated deliveries within a clear window, they improved on-shelf commodity availability from approximately 40% to 90%. Delivery times dropped from 32 days down to just five. This matters for Kenya because, while the country has invested in digital infrastructure and new warehouses, operational discipline remains uneven. For example, electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD) adoption has averaged only 56%. The Ethiopia case proves how quickly outcomes improve when visibility is paired with better planning.

Q: Many governments and donors have invested heavily in health supply chains over the past decade. Why hasn’t last-mile logistics improved at the pace expected, and what has been missing from previous approaches?

A: The last-mile question is less about commitment and more about how investments translate into day-to-day performance. Three key patterns can explain why last-mile logistics hasn’t improved as fast as expected (non exhaustive). First, many investments focus on infrastructure and assets like cold chains, but reliable delivery requires active exception management and clear service level expectations. Second, while digitization has improved monitoring, “data-to-action” cycles are still maturing. Kenya lacks robust performance management, and multiple systems with limited interoperability reduce timely decision-making.

Third, operational capacity remains largely public-sector driven. Specialized private-sector logistics expertise remains untapped. In many countries, execution is handled by public agencies operating under tight resource constraints. Mobilizing private sector capabilities through performance-based contracting has the potential to transform these chains. Generally, the “brains” of the supply chain – the ability to budget, plan, and coordinate, tend to be underdeveloped.

Q: Logistics Marketplace is backed by the Global Fund and the Gates Foundation. How does it differ in practice from existing procurement or logistics procedures that governments are already used to?

A: Logistics Marketplace helps strengthen and streamline government procurement and contracting procedures. Governments retain full autonomy over what they procure, from whom, and under which terms. What changes is that the platform makes it more structured, more transparent, and easier to manage.

In practice, it helps governments in four ways. It helps by consolidating procurement activity in one place, reducing administrative friction and shortening cycle times. It provides visibility into the local market, identifying which private-sector providers offer specific services like cold chain transport or warehousing. By standardizing service definitions, it allows governments to compare providers on a “like-for-like” basis. The core difference is that existing procedures are often implemented in a fragmented way, whereas Logistics Marketplace provides a practical coordination layer that makes these procedures easier to execute and oversee.

Q: You describe Logistics Marketplace as a “global good.” How do you ensure it strengthens local capacity rather than sidelining smaller, informal, or rural logistics providers?

A: When we say Logistics Marketplace is a public global good, we mean it is openly accessible for the users who want to benefit from it – buyers, providers and freight forwarders – rather than being a closed system available only to a small group or large companies with a larger wallet.

We aim to build local capacity because the platform is built to make the logistics market more transparent and more contestable, not more exclusive. It offers open registration for professional providers of all sizes, allowing them to showcase where they operate and what they offer. In many environments, buyers default to “the usual suspects” because smaller companies are harder to find. By standardising profiles, we help SMEs become discoverable and credible. As these SMEs win work and build a documented track record, they become progressively stronger participants in the market. This is the most sustainable way to strengthen local capacity over time.

Q: What are the biggest political, regulatory, or institutional barriers to fixing medical logistics in Kenya today, and are these harder to solve than the technical ones?

A: The key barriers are typically financial, institutional, and regulatory. Institutional complexity is a major hurdle; when multiple organisations share responsibility across procurement and distribution, it becomes difficult to drive alignment and accountability. Long procurement cycles also reduce responsiveness.

Additionally, current procedures often make it difficult to buy logistics services at speed. If services cannot be rapidly contracted through framework agreements or call-off mechanisms, each delivery cycle becomes an administrative burden. These barriers are often harder to solve than technical ones because they require policy shifts or decentralised approaches.

Q: If the Kenyan government were to adopt your recommendation tomorrow, what immediate impact would we realistically notice within the next 6–12 months?

A: The most realistic changes would be visible operational improvements. You would expect to see higher on-shelf availability for priority commodities driven by more reliable delivery cycles – not just “more stock.” You would also see lower delivery costs through better lane planning and truck utilization. Finally, we would see stronger accountability through better delivery confirmation. Improving POD rates enables faster corrective action and better financial control. In short, within a year, the most noticeable changes would be fewer “surprise stock-outs” and a more predictable delivery cadence.

Q: Looking ahead to universal health coverage goals for 2030, what risks do you see if logistics coordination is not fixed, and how much progress could realistically be achieved just by getting this piece right?

A: Kenya’s trajectory shows what’s possible when health programs perform well, such as major reductions in HIV, TB, and malaria burden, and strong treatment outcomes. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is the next step: turning that progress into routine access everywhere. If logistics coordination isn’t fixed, UHC promises won’t consistently translate into frontline services, undermining confidence in primary healthcare. We will also see persistent equity gaps, as unreliable logistics disproportionately affect rural and hard-to-reach communities.

Improved coordination through public-private partnerships is a high-leverage improvement because it directly impacts supply chain throughput. With the right enablers – timely financing and effective governance – we can achieve faster responses to demand changes and better value for money. Strengthening logistics is the most practical way to ensure Kenya’s health gains are felt consistently by every patient in the country. We are excited that Kenya’s health gains show the system can deliver.