COUNTY OVERVIEW
Tana River County, one of six Coast Region counties, has a population of 315,943 and covers 39,190.6 Km2. It is home to three dominant tribes: Pokomo, Orma, and Wardey, as well as five sub counties: Tana River, Tana Delta, Tana North, Galedyertu, and Bangale. Economic activities in the county include crop production, livestock keeping, aquaculture, apiculture, poultry farming, sand harvesting, gypsum harvesting, Jua Kali industry, trading activities, and tourism. Tana River County is a member of two regional Economic Blocs: Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) and Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani (JKP). FCDC focuses on healthcare services, peace, security, values, good governance, technical, vocational, and education, and staff capacity building. JKP aims to catalyze economic growth in Kenya’s coast regional counties through coordination, policies, promotion of the region as a sea-land of opportunities, investment, and tourist destination.
The county spans 39,190.6 Km2 and shares borders with Kitui, Garissa, Isiolo, Lamu, and Kilifi counties. Its latitudes and longitudes are 000’53” and 200’41” South and 38025’43” and 40015′ East, with a 76 Km coastal strip.
Administrative Units
The county is divided into the following administrative units: Five (5) Sub counties (Tana North, Tana River, Tana Delta, Bangale, and Galedyertu); three (3) constituencies (Bura, Galole and Garsen); 15 Wards; 58 locations; and 113 sub-Locations. Table 1-1 shows the area of the county by administrative units. Tana Delta is the largest sub-county with 16,013.4 Km2 followed by Bangale with 7,817.7 km2, Galedeyertu with 7,646km2, Tana North with 5,373.8 km2 and Tana River with 2,011.3 km2
Population Projections (by Sub-County and Sex)
Apart from Tana Delta sub-county, the other sub-counties did not have inter-sex persons. The most populous sub-county in Tana River County is the Tana Delta with a population of 116,757
followed by Tana North sub-county with 110,640 while Tana-River sub-county has a population of 88,456. The male population for Tana Delta and Tana North Sub-counties washigher than the female population while the female population in Tana-River sub-county was higher than that of male.
Distribution of Health Facilities by Sub-County
In summary, Tana River County has 88 health facilities spread across 3 sub-counties. 11.4% of these are faith-based facilities (10) while 64.8% belong to the ministry of health (57). This leaves 22.7% listed as private facilities (20) and 1.1% under NGO’s (1). Kenya has a total of 14,251 health facilities. This translates to Tana River County having 0.62% of the country’s Total Facilities.
Despite the presence of these facilities, residents often face challenges in accessing healthcare services. Many patients travel more than 20 kilometers to reach the nearest health facility, indicating a need for more accessible healthcare services within the county.