Cotu demands Nyong'o's sacking over NHIF rates

The fight against the increase in the monthly contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund took a new twist Friday with the workers' body calling for the sacking of Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o.

At an evening news conference at Nairobi’s Solidarity House, the headquarters of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, the workers also said that the NHIF chief executive, Mr Charles Kerich, should be sacked as part of the reform package at NHIF before the new contributions are effected.

Addressing journalists, Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli, accused the two of “incompetence” in handling the matter.

“I don’t think that NHIF has competent structures to handle the kind of money that they want workers to pay,” he said.

He also called the assistant minister, Mr Kambi Kazungu, “foolish” for saying that he (Mr Atwoli) was “inciting workers".

“The core mandate of NHIF is to the contributors. It is not the way the foolish assistant minister wants us to believe that workers can take care of the poor,” said the Cotu boss.

“There’s nowhere where it says that workers should shoulder the responsibility of treating the poor.”

Mr Atwoli made the remarks just moments after Cotu got a nod from the High Court staying the implementation of the new rates that would have seen workers contribute up to Sh2,000 to the Fund.

“Until this case is heard and determined; no single cent of workers’ money should be touched. If any employer went ahead and deducted the money as per the other ruling, they’ll face the full force of the workers,” said the workers’ boss. The case will be heard on November 24.

“We have several options to win against NHIF. I am sure we’re going to emerge victorious (in the court case) to have that legal notice de-gazetted.”

Mr Atwoli insisted that Cotu was “open and ready for dialogue”.

However, he repeated that should the court case fail to stop the NHIF from having its way with the new rates, then he’ll call a nationwide strike.

“We have the ability, the means and the capacity to fight them. Unless we sit on the table and agree on the way forward, then we’ll have to strike,” he said.

But as he called for dialogue, Mr Atwoli insisted that the government should only appear if it has adhered to the Abuja Declaration that calls for all signatories to grant 15 per cent of the national budget to health. He also said the Constitution placed the mandate of taking care of the poor people’s health on the government.

He added that the National Social Security Bill that was rejected by Parliament when the then Health Minister Charity Ngilu presented it, should also be on the table.

The often pugnacious workers’ boss kept on waving a copy of the new Constitution saying that a the right to a strike was “the only God-given weapon” that the workers have.

“We’ll go on strike and we’ll still be paid,” he said.

Asked if it was practical that employers and even the government would still pay workers who were on strike, he said that that was what the Constitution provided for.

“We are street fighters. We’ll strike and they’ll  be calling us at midnight so that we can talk. We are not worried about our capacity to sustain a strike. It is the rich, the government and the employers who are worried,” he said.