Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Medical underwriter AAR Kenya’s bid to renew a multi-million
shilling insurance cover deal for City Hall staff is facing opposition
from a section of county representatives.
Mlango Kubwa
MCA Patricia Mutheu has moved a motion to prompt Governor Mike Sonko to
reconsider the deal with the firm and instead channel the funds towards building the capacity of county health facilities.
reconsider the deal with the firm and instead channel the funds towards building the capacity of county health facilities.
She
faulted the county government for engaging the insurance firm to cover
the more than 12,000 staff in a deal running to over Sh1 billion
annually, claiming they were receiving average medical cover despite the
billions being pumped into the deal.
The MCA said she wants the focus to shift instead to building
capacity of local health facilities, which are reeling from congestion,
lack of medicine, essential equipment and frequent strikes by medical
staff.
“We want the money that we are paying the
private firm to be channelled to equipping county health facilities and
provision of medicine in the facilities.
“Why are we
spending such colossal amounts of money on an average medical cover yet
our county facilities have no medicine, no nurses and equipment?” she
posed yesterday.
Ms Mutheu now wants the county Health
executive to consider other alternatives like the National Hospital
Insurance Fund to create a revamped and proper medical cover for
employees and reduce the cost of private insurance.
“The
county stands to make great savings if mechanisms can be explored for
county employees to leverage their NHIF cards within a customised and
enhanced framework within the county’s hospitals and dispensaries,”
stated Ms Mutheu.
AAR’s tenure at City Hall has come
under intense scrutiny ever since the insurer entered into a deal with
ex-governor Evans Kidero’s administration in the financial year 2015/16.
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