Abstract:
Cash transfers may have direct and indirect impact on health status of refugees in
camps. The cash transfer programme in Kakuma camp was intended to help refugees realize
improved social welfare but experience indicates that refugees continue to face a backlash
when it comes to social development dimensions including access to quality healthcare.
Therefore, this study sought to establish the impact of cash transfer programme on access to
quality healthcare among refugees in Kakuma camp. Social systems theory, resilience
theory and social development model guided the study. A convergent parallel mixed method
design was adopted. The sample size was 400 comprising of 370 refugees selected using
simple random, 5 key informants and 25 refugee community leaders selected purposively.
Questionnaires, interviews and FGDs were used. SPSS analysed quantitative data while
thematic analysis was for qualitative data. Tables, graphs, charts and verbatives were
employed. Findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between cash transfer
and access to quality healthcare among refugees in Kakuma camp (P- = 0.133>0.05). The
study concluded that cash transfer has not had much contribution on improving access to
quality healthcare among refugees in Kakuma camp. The impact of cash transfer was too
little because it mostly related to the transportation to health facilities. These findings had
professional implications to social policy and welfare social work practice as its focus was
premised on the wellbeing among refugees. The study recommends that UNHCR and its
partners and GoK should strategize to include the component of healthcare in the cash
transfer programme by providing supplementary funding to households to cater for
healthcare. Subsequently, health insurance covers for refugees should be integrated in the
cash transfer programme to facilitate specialized healthcare outside Kakuma camp and aid
refugees suffering from terminal diseases like cancer which need extensive resources for
treatment
