Omtatah now pursues the legality of PHOTC’s activities as he files a separate case on Ombacho’s illegal term extension
By Kevin Ndhirangu
The Public
Health Sector with bias to Environmental Health has been at its worst over the
last one decade. This is evidenced by the surge and re-emergence of communicable
diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, Malaria, TB, HIV, RTIs, etc. This has been
attributed to poor leadership and mismanagement. This is a blow to the taxpayers
in the country considering the government spends millions of shillings to train
Public Health Officers across the Country. Going by the recommended ratio of 1
Public Health Officer (PHOs) per 1000 population, the country on overage needs
to have employed over 40,000 PHOs. However, hardly 4,000 exist in the MOH
database, with an equally same number stranded out there with no jobs. This has
led to demoralization of most PHOs, as others seek greener pastures outside the
country.
The
time is ripe for Kenyans to hold the Ministry of Health accountable for the
deteriorating public health status of this country especially the Director of
Public Health Kepha Omacho who has refused to retire despite having reached the
minimum age of 60+ years. He is well known to intimidate his Public Health
staff and this runs way back before devolution when he had much more control of
the DPHOs. His intimidation tactics has led to stigmatization of most PHOs in the
government system for fear of losing their jobs if not demotion.
Late
last year (2017) one of Kenya’s greatest Constitutional and Human rights
Activist, Mr. Okiya Omtatah, decided to intervene and fight for the 40 plus Million
Kenyans who have fallen victims of the mismanagement of the public health sector.
Through his Petition No. 562 of 2017 filed at the High Court, Mr. Omtatah objected
to the renewal of the contract for the Director of Public Health Dr. Kepha
Ombacho, who inspite of having reached more than the minimum employment age of
60 years back on 28th November 2017, went further to illegally stay
in office for the month of December before his new contract which was to begin
on 2nd January 2018.
Latest
reports by the Public Service Commission have indicated that 37% of Public Servants
are set to retire this year. The DP Hon. William Ruto has clearly been quoted
indicating the government was not going to renew any contract of Public
Servants who have reached retirement age. However, it is hard to understand
what informed the decision to give Ombacho a contract extension of 2 years yet
he holds no special skills, which his Deputy and Assistant Directors do not possess.
The DPH,
who also doubles as the Registrar of PHOTC, had called for Preliminary
Objection of the entire case, a request which was rejected by the court on 24th
January 2018. Latest reports indicate Omtatah’s Petition. No. 562 of 2017 has
since been amended to focus only on the legality of PHOTC’s activities, still
at the Constitutional and Human Rights Court. The PHOTC case is centred on
three main areas: mismanagement of the council’s affairs, irregular appointment
of independent members of the council and exorbitant and discriminatory
professional examination and licensing fees charged on PH graduates for
competence assessments. A date for the commencement of this amended case is set
to be 21st February 2017.
Other
reliable sources from the Court indicate Omtatah has now filed a separate case on
the 60 years mandatory retirement age at the Employment and Labour Relations
Court, Petition No. 110 of 2017, which seeks interim orders to remove Dr. Kepha
Ombacho from Office for having been awarded the 2 year extension contract
illegally by the Public Service Commission and the then CS. Mailu. The hearing
for this case will commence on 6th February 2018. It is very clear Okiya
Omtatah is actually fighting for the thousands of frustrated Public Health
Officers and millions of Kenyans at large.
Mr. Kevin is a PHO in the private sector
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