BY THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
Several medical interns spent the night outside Afya House, the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, in an effort to compel the Minister to surrender their pay. The interns, who covered themselves with duvets and blankets on the pavement outside Afya House in the windy Community area of Nairobi, refused to leave for the night in an effort to have the case attended to.
The interns are par of the Kenya medical fraternity that has bene demanding either the sacking or resignation of Health CS Susan Nakhumicha. The CS is believed to be protected due to her relationship with National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetanag’ula and is one of the “protected” CS’s in Ruto’s government. She has so far remained intransigent, even though she’s believed to be pone of the most incompetent and unqualified CSs in Ruto’s government.
Notably, Nakhumicha has failed to stem corruption in the Ministry, at one time throwing her hands up in the air when faced with the massive corruption at national drug supply agency KEMSA. The agency is riddled with debt and is unable to pay suppliers while its top officers, often in collusion with top government officials continue to receive payments totaling billions of shillings without offering commensurate services of supplies. It ha also been used by county governments that purport to supply drugs to their hospitals and use KEMSA documentation to claim payments from county governments.
Most health functions are devolved but the national government retains most of the funding, which has not been assigned to the counties. However, there’s a contradiction as most of the money allocated to the health function in the counties is stolen by governors and their cronies, who purport to supply their health institutions but often end up supplying nothing. Corruption in the counties is one reason the funds have not bene disbursed there. but the national government institutions, which are charged with controlling and prosecuting corruption, have either been compromised or are too lazy to start their work,