Health services in counties on track, says Kisii governor

Kisii Governor James Ongwae on Sunday added his voice to those opposing calls to return health services to the national government.

Mr Ongwae said his county has made tremendous achievements in the sector in the last two years.

“During this time, we have set up a teaching and referral hospital complete with a CT scan, dialysis machines and other modern equipment.

“We have also started constructing a 450-bed capacity male ward as well as a mortuary with the capacity to hold at least 100 bodies… all this will be reversed if the function reverts back to the National government,” he told the Senate Committee on Health in Kisii Town.

He added: “Our response to the question whether we want health services reverted to national government is an unequivocal no!”

The governor said he spends almost a quarter of his budget to develop the county’s health sector but his team’s efforts were being frustrated by reduced allocation to the devolved units.

He said the reduction of the health budget to Sh82 million this year from last year’s Sh211 million had started impacting negatively on the projects.

“It is evident that for more than 50 years, the government did not offer the kind of service that county governments are doing,” the governor added.

The Senate Committee is on a countrywide tour to get views of county governments on whether they support calls to have the health function reverted to the national government as was proposed by the National Assembly’s Committee on Implementation of Resolutions.

PROTECT DEVOLUTION

On Sunday, committee vice-chairperson Zipporah Kittony said she was pleased with the progress that Kisii County had made in the health sector in the two years of devolution.

Ms Kittony said the Senate was mandated to protect devolution and the Constitution was clear that health was a devolved function.

“We have seen how devolution is working and the progress made in the health sector. We are going around on a fact finding mission and collecting views from the public so that we can find a way to stop the national government from frustrating devolution,” she said.

But on Sunday, two Members of the National Assembly Parliament renewed their calls for the return of health services to the national government, citing inability by county governments.

MPs James Bett (Kesses) and Alfred Agoi (Sabatia) said his colleagues were unanimous in this resolve. They spoke on Saturday at Annex area in Kesses Constituency, Uasin Gishu County, during the burial of Mr Agoi’s niece, Ms Vivian Vugutsa Kibisu, who was a student at Alliance Girls High School.

The MPs expressed concern over the high number of medical doctors leaving government-run health facilities due to poor working conditions.

Mr Agoi, said some 1,800 doctors have so left various public hospitals across the country to look for greener pastures.

Additional reporting by Dennis Lubanga