In December last year the United States signed a "data sharing agreement" with Kenya which purported to support "collaboration between the US government and government of Kenya to detect, prevent and respond to emerging and existing infectious disease threats affecting both Kenya and the United States".
The agreement includes commitments from the US to provide around 1.6bn over five years to support Kenya's supply of medical equipment, healthcare commodities, insurance coverage and expansion of the workforce. Supporters of the deal claim it is vital in strengthening Kenya's ability to respond to diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
The move immediately sparked controversy, however. Central to the deal was the transfer of health data from Kenya to the US. The two sides pledged to "develop a named list of the Covered Data Systems, data to be provided, authorised users, type of access and the type of reports accessible from each system." The aid money was made contingent on this transfer of Kenyan data to the US.
