Title: Developing civic virtue in Kenyan health governance

Authors: Collins Ogutu Miruka

Addresses: Sanlam Centre for Public Management and Governance, University of Johannesburg, 26 Skyview, St Georges Road, Southernwood 5201, South Africa

Abstract: This paper analyses the concept of civic virtue based on field findings from a study conducted in four hospitals in Western Kenya regarding the impact of social capital on public provisioning. It is a central hypothesis of this study that more work needs to be done by all public affairs stakeholders in Kenya to engender and enforce a concerted campaign to raise civic mindedness amongst healthcare administrators and service providers as well as among the community of users. Civic virtue as employed in this study refers to the collection of qualities and attitudes held by the population in relation to the state and public service delivery. The researcher argues here that there are insufficient levels of civic virtue amongst healthcare service providers to enable the optimal operation of public hospitals.

Keywords: health governance; health policies; civic virtue; healthcare quality; Kenya; hospitals; health services; social capital; public provisioning; stakeholders; administrators; service providers; service users; public service delivery; behavioural research; healthcare research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2009.032155

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.371 - 387

Published online: 11 Mar 2010 *

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