MPs censure governors as strike paralyses health services

Health workers from Uasin Gishu County demonstrate in Eldoret town after a countrywide strike started on Tuesday. Photo/JARED NATAYA 

By EDWIN MUTAI and NEVILLE OTUKI

In Summary

• The National Assembly Health Committee said governors were rushing the devolution of health services only to spend the money allocated to the sector on bureaucracies at the county level.
• The committee asked governors and health professionals to avert suffering and death.
• The strike followed failure by KMPDU, the Council of Governors and the government to agree on anchoring devolution of health services in law.

Members of Parliament are blaming governors for the suffering and deaths caused by the health workers’ strike that started Tuesday.

The National Assembly Health Committee said governors were rushing the devolution of health services only to spend the money allocated to the sector on bureaucracies at the county level.

“There is need for planning as stipulated in phases. We need to sit down and plan carefully as we devolve human resources, vaccination and procurement of drugs. Devolution of doctors and nurses should be planned,” said committee member James Nyikal.

The committee asked governors and health professionals to avert suffering and death.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU), however, said it would not relent on the strike until a law governing the devolution of health services is enacted.

“We want to have a road map towards establishing a health law to guide services in counties. Currently, we are using jungle law with each county doing things their own way without coordination,” KMPDU secretary-general Sultani Matendechere said.

The doctors also want their salaries to continue being paid from the Ministry of Health instead of by county governments.

“The national government should continue handling our pay until we have a law in place guiding the operation,” he said, claiming county executives had in some cases tried to micro-manage delivery of services.

The Treasury has prepared a Supplementary Budget from which health workers would continue being paid by the ministry, but Parliament failed to pass the Bill before it went on recess last week.

Health Secretary James Wainaina also committed during a meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta last month to have the requisite law and policy tabled in Parliament by the end of March next year.

Despite the pledges, health workers downed their tools on Tuesday leaving patients stranded at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Mbagathi and other key hospitals.

“Information available to us indicates that the strike is on and is widespread throughout the country. Patients are stranded at Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Mbagathi and other key hospitals in several counties,” committee chairperson Rachel Nyamai told a news conference at Parliament buildings last evening.

The strike followed failure by KMPDU, the Council of Governors and the government to agree on anchoring devolution of health services in law.

While governors are demanding full devolution of health services, health workers want the devolution phased over a period of three years as provided in the Constitution.

The health workers are also demanding the development of a national policy and enactment of legislation to guide devolution of health services.