Lawmakers support health workers' push for pay rise

Kemsa Embakasi warehouse

Kemsa Embakasi warehouse Ag. Manager Valentine Tindi (right) with the Senate Health committee members (from left) Millicent Omanga, Mary Seneta, Abdulahi Ali, and other senators when they visited the warehouse on December 1, 2020.

Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The report contains specific timelines the demands by the healthcare workers are supposed to be met.
  • The adoption of the report by the National Assembly now paves the way for the ministry to direct Kemsa to release all the idle PPE.

MPs on Tuesday voted to compel the government to honour a raft of demands by health workers, including new allowances, State-funded group life and medical insurance cover.

The lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in support of the Health committee report which also directed the ministry to release to public hospitals personal protective equipment (PPE) held in Kemsa stores to reduce the cost of treating Covid-19 patients. 

The report contains specific timelines the demands by the healthcare workers are supposed to be met by both the national and county governments.

The adoption of the report by the National Assembly now paves the way for the ministry to direct Kemsa to release all the idle PPE currently in their stores and distribute them to frontline medical workers and public hospitals.

During the debate on the report last week, Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo criticised Kemsa for holding the PPE while the situation is dire, especially in counties.

“Let Kemsa and the Health CS release the PPE to save lives out there, if someone wants to accuse them of breaching the law, we as Parliament will be here to defend them,” Ms Odhiambo said.

Kenyans will now not be charged for PPE while undergoing Covid-19 treatment at public hospitals.

The National Treasury and the Ministry of Health now has seven days to release Sh500 million to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to cater for the provision of Group Life Insurance Cover for all medical staff working in the county and national referral hospitals.

Upon receiving the money, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) will have only two days to ensure that all medical staff in the public hospitals are placed under the Group Life Insurance Cover.

Risk allowance

The adoption of the report also paves the way for the National Treasury and Council of Governors to establish a centralised pool of health cover through the NHIF Comprehensive Medical Scheme for all county medical staff.

“The scheme should be in place at the beginning of the Financial Year 2021/22 and that the Ministry of Health and counties do make provisions for the same in their respective FY 2021/22 budgets,” reads the report.

The committee has also directed Ministry of Health and governing councils of the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to pay all pending call allowances to doctors as per the collective bargaining agreement and the return-to-work formula which was signed on March 14, 2017 within two weeks after adoption of the report.

At the same time, the lawmakers want the Health ministry to engage the Salaries and Remuneration Commission with a view to enhancing the risk allowance for medical staff.

The ministry has also been given two weeks to ensure that procurement of the Sh300 million re-usable masks for the vulnerable is concluded and the masks distributed to the target group across the country.

Earlier this month, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe told Parliament that the procurement of the free masks for the vulnerable is set to start afresh after all samples submitted by manufacturers failed to meet technical and quality tests.

He said the bidders had been requested to resubmit samples for technical evaluation.

It is also good news to the medical staff employed on contract as they are set to benefit from a comprehensive medical Cover and all their pending salary arrears paid within 14 days upon adoption of the report.