Yesterday, the 14th day of February 2023 KMPDU joined other Unions for a breakfast meeting with His Excellency, the President Dr. William Ruto at State House Nairobi to discuss the Kenya Kwanza health agenda.
We reminded His Excellency of the promise he gave to Kenyans in the UDA manifesto about provision of quality and free healthcare services to every Kenyan and also his promise to the Healthcare workers of forming a Health Services Commission to standardize the Human Resource Management in the sector.
The President reiterated he was keen on employing more healthcare workers to help him deliver his Universal Healthcare Promise. As such, he pledged to hire 100,000 community health workers (CHWs) and 4000 doctors.
It was also agreed that a hub and spoke model would be applied where these CHWs would be organised in a 25-member cohort, each reporting to a medical doctor. This will culminate in the employment of all our 4000 jobless colleagues.
We requested the President that the UHC staff that had been hired on contractual terms be converted to permanent and pensionable in line with the Hustler motto of *Usawa kwa wote*.
Dr. Ruto also expressed his disappointment with the industrial disharmony in the health sector and promised to undertake further consultations on how to initiate the process of Health Service Commission (HSC) formation. As a Union we fully support this idea because we believe that Kenyans deserve to get uninterrupted services free from mismanagement by the county governments.
Finally, the President made clear his desire to have a publicly funded Universal healthcare program, which would ensure there is increased access to quality healthcare without anyone suffering financial loss. We believe this is a move in the right direction to ensuring that healthcare becomes a basic and fundamental human right as envisioned by the drafters of our Constitution.
We thank the President for having this candid discussion on healthcare and we look forward to working closely with his team.
