No to medics hired by State, governors say

County bosses will no longer accept health workers hired by the national government, the Council of Governors has resolved.

Council Chairman Peter Munya said in reaction to job advertisements by the Health Ministry.

“Health is a devolved function and the recent adverts in daily newspapers are uncalled for,” Mr Munya said in Mombasa on Thursday on the sidelines of the second inter-governmental forum on agriculture.

The governors could be reacting to a scandal in which a man posted by the national government to Nandi County was found to be a fake doctor.

At the time of his arrest on Tuesday, Mr Ronald Kiprotich, 28, was the medical superintendent of Meteitei Sub-County Hospital.

He had previously worked Kapsabet County Referral Hospital after an internship, which he did not complete, at Kendu Adventist Hospital in Homa Bay County.

Mr Melly has already been charged with practising without qualifications and forgery of documents.

The University of Nairobi and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board have since distanced themselves from the quack.

However, Mr Munya did not give details on the mode of hiring counties would adopt.

He also did not say if devolved governments had the qualified personnel to conduct interviews.

Meanwhile, governors said affordable credit and training were among measures they would use to encourage the young take to farming.

Participants at the two-day forum urged counties to set aside funds to support such programmes.

Agricultural Finance Corporation MD Lucas Meso said most requests for loans by youth to support agriculture were rejected because the reasons given were never convincing.

The meeting, which took place at Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort was told that limited land, challenges in accessing loans, inadequate skills, negative perception, lack of support for innovation and research as well as technology had made young people shun agriculture.

“If it is farming they want to engage in, the youth prefer ready information,” Ms Bernadette Murgor, the publisher of Smart Farm Africa magazine, said.

Food and Agriculture Organisation head of strategic planning and coordination unit Sheila Koskei said technology can be used to lure the young into farming.

“If they love music, then use celebrities to show them that farming can also be cool,” she said.