Duale Vows to Weed out Fake Medical Practitioners
Health cabinet secretary Aden Duale flanked by Medical Practioners in Mombasa. (Photo By Harrison Kivisu)
By Harrison Kivisu
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Health cabinet secretary Aden Duale said the ministry was committed to actualise the universal health coverage in the country.
The CS said it was immoral and unacceptable to have medics without insurance cover yet they are the one offering the health services to Kenyans.
He said the government is keen to eradicate all the bottlenecks bedevilling the implementation of Social health Authority (SHA) scheme.
The secretary further promised to initiate talks with Council of Governors to have statutory deductions for SHA deducted from the treasury to avoid stalemates.
This, he said, would cure the delays by counties that have a tendency of delaying remittances.
On the internship posting, he said the plan was being fixed while adding that he would crack down on the sprouting training institutions that do not have capacity to train doctors.
“We will regulate the facilities; we will evaluate and see whether you have the capacity to train doctors. We must do away with commercial interests,” he said.
According to him it was shocking that some training facilities are taking too many students for training while they do not have the capacity to maintain them.
“We must uphold professional standards in the professional training. We must train according to our capacity, and this should be adhered to,” he added.
Duale, who addresses 9th annual KMPDU conference in Mombasa, said the government was investing heavily to safeguard the health human resources.
“As a ministry in partnership with counties, we are investigating to protect the health human resources. The ministry is committed to honour pledges to the health sector,” he said.
The CS said beginning next week; the ministry would conduct an inspection in training facilities to ensure trainees get quality training before they are dispatched.
“If it means amending the law we will amend the law from next week we will visit all training facilities. We can’t have an intern program with so many trainees in the same station.”
KMPDU chairman Dr Abidan Mwachi wants the government to deal with doctor deficit in the country saying the shortage of medics is hurting the health sector.
The chairman also hinted at a possible of strike in Kiambu, Trans Nzoia Kisumu, Lamu, Kajiado, Laikipia, and Nakuru counties saying the governors have failed to address the plight of medics.
The respective counties listed have issues of remitting statutory deductions, salary and other remuneration matters to their healthcare employees.
On his part, health principal secretary Dr Ouma Olunga said the matters affecting the health sector were under government consideration.
He advised medics to employ consultations instead of pointing fingers.
Mombasa governor Abdullswamad Nassir announced that in the current budget for the county it would factor in its budget doctors’ promotions, doctors employment, equipping medical facilities and welfare of its health employees.
“Mombasa is the first county to embrace digitisation. This has helped us weed out quacks and people who are not well trained for their profession,” he said.
The governor proposed that statutory deductions for all county employees should now be deducted from the National treasury before the monies are allocated to counties.
He says there needs to be a law to have payroll management with county government while KRA, NSSF and NHIF can be left to be deducted from the treasury.
“The issue if statutory deductions is a must we have to pay as governors, but we have a proposal that these deductions can be deducted at the source which is national treasury.”
They were speaking during the ninth (9th) KMPDU annual delegates meeting held in Mombasa on May 10, 2025, and graced by the CS Duale and Mombasa governor Nassir.
