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{
    "id": 597228,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/597228/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 41,
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    "content": "past in a very sober manner. I know that there are also people who are riding on the challenges that counties are facing, related to health, to propose that the health function needs to be reversed to the national Government. I agree entirely with what Sen. Keter said that; Kenyans must live with the position that the health function is devolved. This includes staff and everything. What we should be discussing as the people of Kenya is how to give better resources and ensure transparent management of the health function. I sympathize with the health workers on one thing; that devolution found most of them where they were working. For example, some had been transferred to serve in Mombasa for five years and others in Migori. They were used to a system for 50 years that was flexible in terms of transfer. You could move from one area of the country to another. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the biggest challenge that health workers are facing today is the inflexibility of the existing system in the devolved governments, where you cannot freely criss cross from Kakamega County to Vihiga County or Elgeyo-Marakwet County to Uasin Gishu County even if the two counties border each other. Going forward, I suggest that we need to work together with the Council of Governors and all the stakeholders to provide a policy framework that will ensure that the health workers’ concerns, in terms of mobility and uniformity of ranking across the country, are addressed. For example, if somebody is in Job Group P, it should be Job Group P everywhere and earning the same salary, except for allowances that are commensurate to the area they were working from. Governors need to have an understanding and agreement that will make it possible for them even to swap staff. For instance, if a doctor is in Tana River and would wish to move to, perhaps, Busia or Siaya County, in order to be closer to his parents who are ailing or for other reasons, there should be flexibility. We need to find a legal policy framework that is flexible for the doctors to solve the problems they are facing without having the discussion of reverting the health function to the national government. I sympathize with Sen. Khalwale’s comment that we have to form a commission or national institution that will bring together all the health workers. Although that sounds good, we cannot do that in the current constitutional structure. As it is, there is independence of every county in terms of its resources and staff. We cannot amalgamate and release all the staff to a national commission, like the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). This is because the bus left the health workers the time we promulgated the Constitution. However, if they wish to amend the Constitution, that is actually a right that exists for every other Kenyan."
}