Health services must be devolved, governors insist

By ROSELYNE OBALA

NAIROBI, KENYA: Governors have maintained that provision of health services must be devolved even as they expressed optimism that the standoff will be resolved.

The county chief executive officers assured health workers that they should not be afraid of devolution.

“Devolution of health services is a sovereign power that counties are exercising on behalf of Kenyans,” said Governors Council Legal and Human Rights Committee Chairman Kivutha Kibwana.

In a statement, Kibwana defended the transfer of health functions to counties, explaining that there are existing law to govern the process.

HUMAN RESOURCES

“County governments are not jungle governments. They will operate strictly according to the law governing human resources. They have a constitutional obligation to do so,” he stressed.

He reiterated that devolution of the health service is the change Kenyans voted for and medical workers cannot “take us back on a reverse gear”.

“The functions for both national and county governments as set out in the Fourth Schedule cannot be changed, as doctors are lamenting, by Parliament, without first seeking public participation and a constitutional amendment,” he said.

Prof Kibwana disclosed that appropriate human resources practices, schemes of services, recruitment and related polices will be mainstreamed in county government processes to ensure uniformity.

“Health is one of the sectors being prioritised. Indeed, as a strategic pillar all counties have committed in developing the healthcare sector,” he said.

He corrected the Commission for Administrative Justice Chairman Otiende Amolo who had said that primary health services were the ones to be devolved to counties.