Pwani Oil Products has partnered with the Kenya Progressive Nurses Association (KPNA) to launch a national hand hygiene campaign aimed at mothers and caregivers, taking handwashing education into maternity and paediatric wards across Kenya.

The campaign, announced in Nairobi on July 20, 2026, targets 80 hospitals by the end of the year and has already reached 45 facilities, according to the companies. Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is the latest facility enrolled. The current phase is expected to reach more than 1,200 mothers and children across the enrolled hospitals.

Under the programme, KPNA nurses conduct education sessions in wards where newborns and young children are most vulnerable to infection. Each activation engages about 300 mothers and caregivers, and participants receive hygiene care packs, according to the press release.

The initiative is framed against a wider public health challenge. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2024 estimates cited in the statement show that more than four in ten Kenyans still lack basic handwashing facilities with soap and water at home. The World Health Organization also ranks diarrhoea—much of it preventable through handwashing with soap—as the second leading cause of death among children under five globally, the release said.

Pwani Oil Products Commercial Director Rajul Malde said the approach is designed around trusted points of care rather than mass advertising. “We are going where the trust already exists,” Malde said. “A mother in a maternity ward is not thinking about brands; she is thinking about keeping her baby safe. If a nurse shows her how to protect her child and the soap in her hand is affordable enough to keep buying, that is worth more to us than any billboard.”

KPNA Secretary General Triza Ireri said nurses regularly see the consequences of poor hand hygiene and argued that the ward setting is a high-impact point for prevention messaging. “Our nurses treat the consequences of poor hand hygiene every day, and most of it is preventable,” Ireri said. “Reaching a mother in the ward, at the moment her child's health is uppermost in her mind, is the most effective health education we can do.”

The hand hygiene push also intersects with competition in Kenya’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, where local manufacturers are seeking to retain and grow household spending amid pressure from rising living costs. Pwani Oil said its Detrex antibacterial soap range carries an endorsement from KPNA, and the company is using the hospital sessions to support product credibility in a category where consumers increasingly demand proof of effectiveness.

“Consumers in this category are not looking for the cheapest soap; they are looking for proof,” Malde said. “The question we get in every market is the same: does it actually work? That is a question best answered by health professionals, not by us.”

For KNH, the partnership is expected to extend infection prevention messaging beyond inpatient care. The hospital’s Infection Prevention and Control Unit is involved in the sessions, and the parties are discussing an annual activation at the facility from October, according to the statement.

KNH Acting Head of Infection Prevention and Control Unit Jemima Katama said the hospital sees the programme as reinforcing public health outcomes outside clinical settings. “Infection prevention cannot stop at the hospital gate,” Katama said. “What caregivers learn here helps protect their families and the wider community.”

Pwani Oil and KPNA said the next milestone is expanding from the 45 hospitals already reached toward the 80-hospital target by year-end, with continued activations in maternity and paediatric wards.

Pwani Oil Products Limited, the manufacturer of Detrex Antibacterial Soap, has donated 10,000 pieces of soap to Rotary District 9212 for distribution to 2,000 schools across Kenya, in a programme aimed at strengthening handwashing practices in learning institutions. The initiative was announced in Nairobi on March 27, 2026, with distribution expected to take place during the second academic term of 2026.

According to the statement, Rotary District 9212 will coordinate the rollout through its education and community service networks, working with school administrations to prioritise institutions where hygiene resources are most constrained. The soap is intended to support handwashing stations installed by Rotary in beneficiary schools “for at least one term,” Detrex said.

The programme comes against what the statement described as persistent sanitation challenges in Kenya. UNICEF data cited in the release indicates that about 75% of households in Kenya lack handwashing facilities with soap and water, underscoring the role schools play in promoting hygiene practices among children.

Company officials said the donation is intended to reinforce hygiene routines that public health experts consider cost-effective in reducing infectious diseases, including diarrhoeal and respiratory illnesses that can contribute to school absenteeism. The release also pointed to global evidence cited by UNICEF that hygiene and sanitation interventions could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths among children under five each year.

“This partnership reflects our belief that health protection begins with simple daily habits such as handwashing. Together with Rotary, we are investing in the wellbeing of learners and in the health resilience of their families and communities,” said Rajul Malde, Commercial Director of Pwani Oil Products Limited.

Rotary District 9212 said it will use its networks across the region to implement the distribution. The district is a regional division of Rotary International covering Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Eritrea, according to the statement.

“Providing soap may appear simple, but it is one of the most effective interventions in protecting children’s health and dignity in schools. We are indeed grateful to Pwani Oil for supporting us with the tools needed to practise proper hygiene, ultimately making learning environments become safer,” said Wairimu Njage, Governor of Rotary District 9212.

For Kenya’s education and consumer goods sectors, the initiative highlights the growing role of private sector and civil society partnerships in sustaining school health measures put in place during the Covid-19 period, when handwashing infrastructure expanded in many public institutions. It also illustrates how manufacturers can channel in-kind contributions to address operational gaps in schools, particularly in rural areas where access to water, sanitation and hygiene supplies remains uneven.

Detrex said the programme is expected to extend impact beyond schools by encouraging handwashing habits in households, especially in communities where access to soap is limited. The next milestone will be the distribution phase over the second term of 2026, as schools integrate the supplies into daily hygiene routines alongside ongoing health education programmes, the statement said.