Health Cabinet Secretary nominee Deborah Mulongo Barasa.
A few minutes after her nomination by President William Ruto for the position of Health Cabinet secretary, Dr Deborah Barasa immediately embarked on raising Sh80,050 to settle a debt owed to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), which had led to her removal from the list of practitioners, and which could have derailed her confirmation in Parliament.
This is after curious social media users who sought to know who she was lifted the lid on a major skeleton in her closet.
“Health CS Nominee Deborah Barasa Mulongo was among the doctors removed from the register for non-compliance with Section 14 of the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act as at 23.04.2019. (number 893),” a social media user said in a tweet that was published with a screenshot of the list.
Many Kenyans on X sought to know how and why the President could nominate a CS who is deregistered by KMPDC and if any background checks were done.
But why was she deregistered?
Dr Barasa, we have learnt, was in April 2019 put on a list of doctors removed from the KMPDC register for non-payment of membership and licence fees.
When Nation reached out to KMPDC on the matter, the CEO Dr David Kariuki did not pick our calls and all the messages we sent via WhatsApp were read, but not replied to.
However, speaking in a telephone interview on Friday, July 19, a senior KMPDC official confirmed this in confidence and further disclosed that Dr Barasa owed the Council Sh80,050.
“That is why we removed her from the register, we will not waive, she has to pay,” the official said.
“You know when people stop practising medicine and go into research, sometimes they default on these payments and so we will only put her back on the register as soon as she pays up because she was removed in compliance with Section 14 of The Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act,” added the official.
The Act in subsection (1) states that a medical practitioner or dentist, issued with a practising licence may apply for the renewal of the licence in the prescribed form at least thirty days before the expiry thereof.
It further highlights that a medical practitioner or dentist who fails to apply for renewal of their practising licence within the period specified under subsection (1), shall, when applying for renewal, be required to pay such late application fee as shall be prescribed by the Council.
By Friday 6.43pm, Dr Barasa had raised and wired Sh80,050 to KMPDU to settle her debt.
“She cleared her Sh80,050 arrears in full two minutes ago and so we will update our system and remove her from the list of doctors we have deregistered so that we put her back in our register, it should reflect within the hour,” the official told Nation.
“The issue has now been sorted.”
By 7.43pm, Dr Barasa’s name was reflecting in the KMPDC register on the website.
“DEBORAH MLONGO BARASA with registration number A6**5 stationed in NAIROBI is licensed to practice as a specialist in INTERNAL MEDICINE for 2024,” the KMPDC register now reads.
