Governors fight bid by MPs to reverse health devolution

The Council of Governors Thursday rejected proposals by a parliamentary committee to revert health functions to the national government.
The legislators claim that most county governments cannot handle the health function effectively.

The council’s chairman of the health and biotechnology committee, Mr Jack Ranguma, said county governments will fight the plan by the Parliamentary Committee on Health, which he said was sorely intended to kill devolution.

Mr Ranguma, who is also Kisumu governor, said functions that were constitutionally transferred to the county government should not be interfered with.

Used by trade unionists
“We must be part of any discussions that involve such functions; the council will engage the President on this,” he said.

The governor said a lot of resources had been allocated for the improvement of health facilities in various counties and significant progress had been made.

He said county governments would not return to the inefficiencies of the old system where the health sector was poorly funded.

“Our people’s hopes rest with devolution; the just released budgets are sufficient evidence that counties are better placed to handle the sector,” he said.

Mr Ranguma cautioned Members of Parliament against being used by trade unionists who are jittery about the high level of supervision county governments imposed on the sector.

“It is not possible for the former system to be returned especially when county governments have restore sanity in the health sector,” he said yesterday.

He said if there were functions that were targeted for transfer either to the national or county government, this must be done by mutual consent.

However, the vice chairman of western Kenya’s chapter of the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union, Dr Vitalis Ogola, said the proposal by Parliament would restore efficiency in level four and five hospitals.

He said transferring the function to the counties was the biggest mistake the constitution drafters ever made.

Dr Ogola said the counties have failed to pay health workers’ salaries regularly and subjected hospitals to inadequate medical supplies.
He said the county governments were more suited to run dispensaries and local health centres, not referral hospitals.

“This is what caused the strike among health workers and the exodus of medical practitioners from these hospitals,” he said.

Dr Ogola said the transfer of health functions proposed by the committee should be effected as soon as it is approved by Parliament.

If the proposals by the Health Committee are implemented, devolution of healthcare would be partially reversed, with money allocated to counties for that purpose returned to the national government.

“The committee recommends that, in accordance with Article 187 of the Constitution, the national and county governments urgently enter into agreements with a view to transferring specific health functions to the national government, including but not limited to Level Four and Five health facilities,” read the parliamentary committee's report.

Only Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Referral and Teaching Hospital and Mathari Hospital in Nairobi are managed by the national government.

The Parliamentary committee proposed that the Transition Authority carries out a phased transfer of hospitals such as the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu and Kisii Level Five, among others, back to the national government.