Health ministry denies sections of bill on NHIF board member

Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • On Thursday, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki told the committee that it will be important to retain the current stakeholders on the board as provided in the current Act.

The Ministry of Health on Thursday disowned proposals in the Miscellaneous Amendment (No 2) Bill 2018 that seeks to kick out trade unions, Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) among others from National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) board.

Director of legislation at the Ministry Mary Wangai told National Assembly’s Health Committee chaired by Swarup Mishra that the initial bill that was sent to the Attorney-General’s office had no proposal to remove other stakeholders from the board.

“We were also supervised when we saw the changes in the bill that was tabled at the National Assembly,” said Dr Wangai who said she was unable to pinpoint who introduced the changes.

Current stakeholders

On Thursday, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki told the committee that it will be important to retain the current stakeholders on the board as provided in the current Act.

The stakeholders on the board  are FKE, Central Organisation of Trade Unions, one person nominated by Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, Kenya Medical Association and a faith-based organisation.

“However, each organisation should be requested to nominate three candidates from whom the Cabinet Secretary will make the appointment from the organisation to allow for adherence to the constitutional requirement of taking into account gender, disability and regional balance,” said Mrs Kariuki.

However, the decision by the ministry to replace the Director of Medical Services in the board with another person attracted heated debate.