Govt to hire 4,200 nurses by March

The Government plans to recruit 4200 nurses by March, it announced on Monday.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said each of the 210 constituencies will get 20 new nurses as part of the government’s Economic Stimulus Programme.

“The total cost (of employing the nurses) is Kshs 1.174 billion per year,” Mr Kenyatta said during the launch of Equity Bank’s Education Bursary Fund that was also attended by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Mr Kenyatta said in Nairobi that the recruitment was underway with the expectation that the nurses would have reported on duty by March.

The nurses will be employed under a three year contract at Sh23,300 per month to help make quality healthcare accessible to all Kenyans.

The minister took issue with opposition to government plans to also employ teachers on contract due to economic constraints.

The government, Mr Kenyatta said, had planned to recruit 10,500 primary school teachers and 2,100 for secondary at Sh10,000 and Sh14,000 per month respectively.

“In our view this proposed wage was far better than the wage paid by parents at the school level and certainly a better option to being unemployed,” he said.

He put the shortage of teachers in the country at 65,000 with primary schools having the lion's share of 41,520.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers has been vehemently opposed to employment of teachers on contract but Mr Kenyatta said the government had hoped to increase the number of teachers who were permanently employed from the existing pool of those on contract as the economy improved.
“I therefore urge us not to play politics with the lives of our children, and thus the future of this nation, but to rationally consider our current constraints in proposing interventions in this area,” Mr Kenyatta said.

The Gatundu South MP attributed the biting drug shortage in the country to a Sh1.8 billion pending Bill that was acquired by the Ministry of Health in 2007/2008 financial year.

Mr Kenyatta said the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency was thus forced to reallocate 50 percent of the resources allocated to it to purchase drugs to offset part of the pending bill in 2008/9.

“Consequently, the amount of drugs purchased was reduced substantially, meaning that where under normal circumstances the country would have a stock of at least four months, this was not the case,” Mr Kenyatta said.

The minister regretted that it has been difficult for him to get explanation from the Ministry of Medical Services and Kemsa on the ‘real’ cause of the pending bill.

“We have however instituted a forensic audit and are in the process of referring the matter for further investigation to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission,” Mr Kenyatta said.

The minister said although the country’s economy had been turned round, its recovery remains “quite vulnerable.”

“It depends largely on what obtains on the global scene, global commodity prices, weather outlook and political environment,” he said.

Kenya’s economy was adversely affected by the 2007 post-election violence and global economic and financial crisis.