Kajiado county assembly has revoked all the transfers of doctors, clinical officers and nurses made by the health CEM on November 24.
At the same time, the assembly revoked all the doctors’ appointments in an acting capacity made by the health CECM Alex Kilowua on November 24.
The county assembly’s ad hoc committee on health chaired by Timothy Saigilu, ruled that the purported changes made by the CECM were against the law and contravened the county government Act 2012 Section 59(1)(b).
Saigilu, during the committee’s sitting on Tuesday, said the said law provides that the function of the county public service board is to appoint persons to hold or act in offices of the county government.
The chairman of the House committee on health said the county minister is not permitted by the law to transfer workers, as that is the prerogative of the health chief officer.
“The CECM for health has no mandate to transfer workers or appoint them in an acting capacity. We are, therefore, revoking all the transfers and appointments made by Kilowua with immediate effect,” said Saigilu.
The ad hoc committee of the House observed that there is clear miscommunication between the chief officer and the health CECM from the different submissions they received during their investigations.
“There are officers serving in acting capacities in the department of medical services and public health who were not appointed by the county public board as outlined by the law,” said Saigilu.
The chairman in his submission said that after observing and scrutinising the list of the proposed transfers provided by the CECM, it is clear that professionalism was not observed, noting that health matters are “very technical services”.
Saigilu ruled that no transfers were done because the chief officer, the person authorised by law, did not approve them.
In his defence, Kilowua claimed he instructed the chief officer through a memo dated November 24 to effect the transfers of various officers with the aim of improving service delivery.
Kulei told the assembly that the memo was a directive, and transfers needed to be done procedurally and professionally, taking into account the laid down human resource procedures.
“This is because some of the officers who the CECM wanted to be transferred had served less than five months after previous transfers – this is against the human resource procedure,” said Kulei.
A report from the county public service board said the CECM acted in contravention of the law in appointing staff in an acting capacity and transferring them.
It said the board received numerous complaints from disgruntled staff regarding transfers and irregular promotions with a vast majority of the complaints from the department of health services, agriculture, livestock, irrigation and fisheries.
“Section 72(1) provides that the power to transfer/deploy a county public officer within a department shall vest in the relevant county chief officer,” the CSB told the county assembly.
During the proposed transfers, Kilowua recommended the transfer of the senior-most county director of medical services, Dr Ezekiel Kapkoni, to Loitotoktok sub-county hospital as a general doctor.
Kilowua, at the same time, appointed a junior doctor, Lydia Munteyian, to take over as the director of county medical services in an acting capacity.
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