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{
    "id": 719175,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/719175/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 79,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. The strike has been on for two months now. Many deaths have occurred in health facilities and many more have occurred in people’s homes because they know that when the doctors are on strike, they do not need to go to hospitals if they cannot afford. Kenyans are dying. All these issues are around the issue of the CBA that was signed in 2013. I have looked at the CBA; it is fairly comprehensive because it does not only talk about salaries and terms of conditions of service, but it looks at health services conditions and their structures. The Ministry is insisting that the CBA is not implementable because it was not registered - which they should have done - and also because it was not counter-signed by the governors. On the other hand, the doctors insist that the CBA was signed by the Ministry that was there. We cannot sit and allow people to suffer as we look at the technicalities of law. We must come out and look at the situation. When transfer of services was being done, it was paramount that the CBA would have been a point of discussion. Now that it did not happen at that point and was not registered, we cannot say that we will not look at it because governors are involved with most of the services. We must look at the history of CBAs that we have had in this country. We must avoid the habit of signing CBAs when elections are near just for us to win. The CBA was signed in 2013 just before the elections. The lecturers are now on strike because a CBA that was signed in 2013 before elections has not been implemented. You will also remember that there was the teachers’ CBA that was signed just before the elections in 1997 and brought a massive strike of teachers. All the parties involved need to sit down: The Ministry of Health, the Health Committee of the Council of Governors through the Inter-Governmental Committee should look at this issue. It is sad that one party says that is not implementable while the other one says that it can be implemented. We cannot afford that kind of stalemate as a country when our people are dying. The issue of Health Workers Services Authority has been discussed in this country for many years and during the 2005 Referendum, this matter was in the Constitution that failed. In 2010 Constitution, those who went to Naivasha said that the issue of the Authority was touched and it was going to be done administratively. So far, nothing has happened. We are avoiding this issue but health workers are a special service just like the police and the teachers. There is nothing wrong with having an authority for them. Health services are now devolved but we are not looking at an authority that is employing workers. We are looking at an authority that will give standards and show how a doctor, nurse or clinical officer working in Migori County will be employed, promoted and even how they will retire so that it is uniform across the country. Each county can then employ their staff within the standard that is acceptable. There is nothing wrong with that. It is too late to have that in the Constitution now because it will require a referendum. But there is a provision to have it done through the law like in the Health Bill before us that is going to be negotiated between the Senate and the National Assembly. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the health workers are many and cadres are many and complex and when they were transferred to the counties, that was not done and that is why we have the Inter- Governmental Relations Technical Committee where the Ministries and the Council of Governors sit. That can be done at that level and the Ministry of Health is better placed to coordinate it. We should not put politics on this issue. I thought we will all be bipartisan on this issue and look at the lives of Kenya. That can be done. The strike should not go on. The Council of Governors, the Ministry of Health, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the Public Service Commission through the Inter-Governmental Relations structure must sit down, come up with a way forward and have meaningful and sincere agreements that we will not turn back on. Doctors feel cheated because they got an agreement, but nobody followed up. We should look at The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}