Ministry now wades into doctors-counties dispute

Doctors who have been rejected by counties due to their ethnicity should notify the national government, Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri has said.

Dr Muraguri said he knew of reports of discrimination of health workers in the counties. However, he did not disclose details.

He called on the rejected doctors to inform him so he can decide the next course of action.

“It is unethical and unconstitutional to subject doctors to such treatment. Every year, nearly 1,200 doctors graduate and if this is how they will be treated when posted, then it is very wrong,” he said in a telephone interview.

DELAYED PAY

This comes after the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPPDU) on Friday said health provision is being choked by ethnicity.

KMPPDU secretary-general Ouma Oluga said he had evidence that health workers were rejected over their ethnicity in some areas like Laikipia and Kajiado.

Some counties are paying native doctors more than others. Others are delaying pay for “outsiders”, said the union.

However, Dr Muraguri said he did not know about the pay disparities.

Dr Oluga pointed out Mombasa rejected five workers posted there yet they had a shortage of 69 doctors, Murang’a rejected 14 and has a shortage of 56, Narok rejected 22 yet they have a shortage of 78, Baringo rejected 19 with a shortage of 105 while Kajiado rejected 18.

But the chairperson of the County Executives for Health Forum Andrew Mulwa denied the claims:

“No doctors have been rejected. Oluga’s remarks are just propaganda. We just posted 700 doctors who completed their internships to different counties.”

Dr Oluga, however, stood his ground. “We have reports of doctors who were recently posted to Tharaka-Nithi and two weeks later, they were asked to leave.”

Dr Oluga further claimed that April and May salaries for health workers in areas such as Makueni, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Nakuru, and Wajir were delayed.

Dr Mulwa, the chair of the county health ministers’ forum and the Makueni County Health Executive cleared his county’s name.

He said: “All health workers were paid by the 27th.”

'A BIG JOKE'

Bomet County Health Executive Stanley Kiplangat said there was no discrimination of doctors. He dismissed Dr Oluga’s claims that some counties had accepted doctors who were not natives but were paying them less than their local counterparts.

“That is a big joke from Dr Oluga. There are 32 doctors in Bomet. Eight of these are locals and the others come from as far as Rwanda, Siaya and Maua. They earn the same pay,” he said.

Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti and his Siaya counterpart Cornel Rasanga denied mistreating doctors seconded to their counties.

The governors instead blamed the national government for the delayed salaries and the shrinking medical workforce.

Mr Awiti said the salaries of all county employees were delayed due to erratic disbursements from the National Treasury.

“At least 50 per cent of doctors serving in Homa Bay are not natives,” he said.

Marsabit County Executive for Health services Stephen Lebarakwe said the statement by the union’s secretary Ouma Oluga was untrue.

He told the Nation via phone that the non-local doctors were in Job Group N and were paid more than the locals.

Mr Labarakwe could not, however, say how much the doctors were paid. 

Baringo County Health Chief Officer Gideon Toromo on Monday said that the county government last month hired 12 doctors and only two were from the region.

Nyeri Health Executive Charles Githinji yesterday said doctors posted to Nyeri would receive their salaries by the end of this month.

Additional reporting by Ken Bett, Dennis Lubanga, Moses Odhiambo, Wycliff Kipsang, Philemon Suter, Philip Bwayo, Raphael Wanjala, James Ngunjiri, George Munene, Martin Mwaura, Muchiri Gitonga