By ALLY JAMAH and MICHAEL WESONGA
Nurses have broken ranks with doctors on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Cabinet Secretary nominee for Health saying the choice of a career banker to head the ministry was the right move.
The National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) and the Kenya National Nurses Union (KNNU) have said Mr James Macharia, also a chartered accountant, was a proven manager and could drive reforms in the critical ministry.
Their stand contradicts the position by doctors, who, through the Kenya Medical Association, opposed the nomination on grounds the President should have chosen proven managers from the medical profession.
NNAK chairperson Jeremiah Maina said medical professionals should concentrate on rendering health services instead of wasting valuable skills in administrative duties, which should be left to professional managers.
“Our country has an acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. We need these people in wards and not in meetings in boardrooms. We spend a lot of money to train medical professionals and we must use them wisely,” he said.
He said good managers like Macharia with proven abilities in the banking sector would do a good job of organising the human and financial resources of the health sector to unlock their value and boost services that Kenyans receive.
KNNU Secretary General Seth Panyako said no doctor should be appointed to head the Health Ministry.
He also said the Principal Secretary position should not be given to a doctor, claiming doctors make poor managers.
He cited Kenyatta National Hospital as an example of an institution being headed by a non-medic saying it was performing better than when it was under the watch of a medical professional. The Union of Kenya Civil Servants also backed Macharia’s nomination, saying his management skills would be supplemented by medical professionals like the chief medical officer, chief nursing officer and chief pharmacist.
Similarly, the Association of Public Health Officers in the North Rift region has pledged support for Macharia. Association’s branch chairman Matthew Kore Cheboi said Macharia was best suited to manage the docket given his background in economics.
