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"id": 14015,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/14015/?format=api",
"text_counter": 441,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang’-Nyong’o",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
"slug": "peter-nyongo"
},
"content": "In both Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), in the first round, the Boards got it wrong. Indeed, in the case of KNH, when they came up with the names, including that of the then CEO, I rejected the list in the same manner, and told KNH to re-advertise the position because the regulations do not allow a sitting CEO to apply. I advertised the position in the case of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. Apparently, when I did that, all hell broke loose. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must be very honest here. I was following Government regulations but other people out there, who knew better, were shouting on top of their voices and compelling me to re-appoint the CEO, who should not have applied for that position in the first place. It was for that reason that I stood my ground because I knew that I was on the right side of the law. Further, we discovered, in the course of the recruitment of the CEO for Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital that the Legal Notice establishing the institution was very peculiar. It was not in line with the State Corporations Act, and was completely out of keeping with all other procedures for State Corporations under my Ministry. Unfortunately, I must apologise that this information came to me rather late, because I had always assumed that the Legal Notice for Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital was like the others. When we discovered this anomaly, we brought it to the notice of the Prime Minister, as the supervisor and co-ordinator of Government functions. We also wrote to the State Law Office requesting that office to remedy this anomaly. Unfortunately, by the time we wrote to the State Law Office, people had gone to court, and the State Law Office advised that we should wait until the court cases were cleared before we amended, or straightened the Legal Notice that established Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am, therefore, very grateful to the Committee because it has recommended exactly what we had written to the State Law Office about on 13th September. We had already started advising the Attorney-General’s Office to change the Legal Notice to be in line with both the State Corporations Act and the procedures and regulations affecting all other parastatals. So, I completely welcome the recommendation by the Committee because it is in line with exactly what we have recommended to the Attorney-General’s Office. That means that when the law is properly put in place, it may not be necessary for the President to appoint both the CEO and the chairman. This is because the procedure is that the President appoints the chairman of the board in all parastatals and the Minister appoints the CEO with advice of the board. So, I do hope that when the law is straightened, the running of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital will be in line with procedures in the Government and that we will not have this misunderstanding any more. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, I do share the concerns of the House and the Committee that we should have a CEO who will no longer be acting, but will be occupying that position substantially as soon as possible. We are caught between the egg and the chicken. Which comes first? Do we regularize the law first, so that the CEO is appointed properly? Or do we ask the two principals to appoint the CEO and then do the law? I think that is a discussion that we will have to have with the Executive arm of the Government, with both the President and the Prime Minister, so that we solve this problem, once and for all. I would like to tell the House that we are up to the task. All the homework has been done. The draft law amending the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is ready. We have communicated it to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The Attorney-General Chambers just said that they cannot take any action until those cases in court are cleared. So, it is a matter that we seek advice from the State Law Office as well as the two principals on how to proceed. But we are concerned just as much as the Committee and the House is concerned that we act expeditiously. Thirdly, I do appreciate the amendment because if you read the litany of events, particularly when I was away from the country from December last year up to March, the board did take certain decisions that put the hospital in a lot of problems. The chairman of the board, as my dear friend Koech has said, wrote very contradictory letters. I have shared this with the Committee. I was very pained with this because I would rather have confidence in the chairman of the board. But these contradictory signals made it very difficult for us to act in unison both as the Ministry and the board. So, I do welcome the recommendations by the Committee and I will oblige. Fourthly, I would like to say that the situation at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is not that bad. We have a much more serious situation in the Ministry. We have a serious situation in the Ministry where the Ministry as a whole is really cash starved. If we have another kind of crisis like we had recently with the banks and so on, we will find out that we do not the means to treat the people. Kenyatta National Hospital is stretched to the limit where even the medicine that is used for burns that had a stock at KEMSA have completely been exhausted. We do not have any stocks any more. We have drawn the attention of the Treasury. We have prepared a further strategic document that shows that over the next five years from now unless Kshs85 billion is pumped into the health sector as a whole, it will grind to a standstill. Much more seriously, of immediate concern, given the fact that the shilling has been playing kwasakwasa with us vis-a-viz the dollar, going up and down; now it is up there, KEMSA as a supplying agency is completely on its knees, because the drugs that were ordered given the previous value of the shilling, we have lost about 40 per cent of that value. If we cannot import the drugs in the next couple of months we will have a crisis in all our hospitals, not just at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital had a crisis at a certain point as I started pointing out in 2008 because the financial management of the hospital left a lot to be desired and we have evidence to that effect. My concern was that we should put proper financial management capacity in the hospital to make sure that the money is properly managed, so that the hospital, like the Kenyatta National Hospital, can survive even under difficult times. This is information that as a Minister, I have in the files. I am in a position to speak with authority vis-a-vis the management of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital than anybody else."
}