ODM threatens to hold demos if officials of Health ministry don't resign

ODM has threatened to hold demonstrations in Nairobi on Tuesday if top Health ministry officials do not resign over corruption allegations by Monday.

The party on Friday demanded that former Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri pack their belongings and vacate their offices.

“We will have more than one million Kenyans on the streets of Nairobi and at Afya House demanding their removal since the government has proved it only acts when faced with mass action,” ODM Secretary for Political Affairs Opiyo Wandayi said.

He criticised the police for using force on Thursday to disperse activists at Uhuru Park, who were protesting against the alleged misappropriation of Sh5.3 billion from the ministry.

“We wish to put on notice Macharia and Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri as Kenyans have lost billions under their watch and an internal audit documented this,” Mr Wandayi said.

Mr Macharia is now the Transport Cabinet Secretary.

He said there was no need for the government or the ministry to call for a new audit or investigation. “We expect the law enforcement agencies to move swiftly into Afya House and arrest the culprits,” he said.

MASS ACTION

“We will start the mass action on Tuesday and continue until they vacate office. Kenyans are tired and we want them to come out in large numbers and declare that they can no longer tolerate this,” he said.

Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga said the scandal involves a very sensitive sector.

“We recently had a crisis at Kenyatta National Hospital, where cancer patients who had travelled from far-flung areas and were sleeping on the floors and could not be treated. To imagine all this money that could have boosted the sector was lost is painful,” she said.

She vowed that ODM would camp at Afya House until the CS and PS go home.

At the same time, senators have expressed disappointment at health services offered by the national and county governments.

Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro and Health Committee chairperson Wilfred Machage said reports of negligence and persistent strikes by health workers in the counties were cause for serious concern.

They also said they were concerned at the corruption allegations at the Health ministry and pledged to investigate.

“Not a single week passes without a report of an issue affecting health services. In Bungoma, a patient died after waiting for four hours to be served, while a woman was misdiagnosed with HIV in Kwale,” said Dr Machage.

RAISED QUESTIONS

Dr Machage said such reports raised questions about the kind of people providing critical health services and the nature of equipment being used, among other issues affecting patients.

Mr Ethuro said poor health services were denying Kenyans their right to emergency care and the highest attainable standards.

“It is a constitutional right. The Constitution says every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Emergency services must be available regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Just imagine watching your loved one die because no one is attending to them,” said Mr Ethuro.

The senators were speaking during a health stakeholders’ meeting with national and county officials at the Flamingo Beach Resort in Mombasa yesterday. They told the national government to stop usurping the roles of the counties.

Council of Governors Health Committee chairman Jack Ranguma said it was disappointing that the counties would only receive 21.9 per cent of the revenue in the 2016/2017 Budget.