Lawyer Nelson Havi has thrown his support behind protests led by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) against the appointment of Aden Duale as the Cabinet Secretary for Health.
In a statement on Monday, March 31, Havi raised doubts about Duale’s fitness for the position, noting that Kenya is home to many qualified professionals who could better oversee the ministry than him.
"KMPDU is right in protesting the appointment of Aden Duale as Health CS. Why should we have him in charge of professional assignments when Kenya has many qualified professionals in those fields? It is high time we said no to this subterfuge in all 22 ministries," he said.
Moments after Duale's appointment to the Health docket, KMPDU Deputy Secretary General Dennis Miskellah expressed reservations over the move.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, March 29, Miskellah noted that the CS was a politician and did not have the credentials to run the docket.
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He opined that past administrations had been appointing politicians to the docket - a move that had failed to bear fruit.
"We believe that Duale is a politician, but the Ministry of Health does not need a politician. We have tried politicians, and they have failed miserably.
"We had a lot of faith when we saw a medic for the first time ever being appointed at the Ministry. People say that she was incompetent, but I can say that she was a very competent woman," he said.
At the same time, Miskellah took issue with Duale after labelling some health facilities as cartels, noting that those facilities were serving a majority of Kenyans.
He indicated that the hospitals had also offered many job opportunities to medics, therefore, any foreseen closure would lead to job losses.
"The private sector, those small facilities that they keep on calling cartels, those facilities cater for 56 percent of Kenyans," he responded.
Speaking at a past event, Duale warned that private clinics operating in residential estates will shut down once the newly established Social Health Authority (SHA) takes full effect.
He stated that SHA would eliminate fraudulent healthcare providers who had been benefiting from loopholes in the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Duale attributed the survival of many hospitals and clinics to what he described as widespread fraud under NHIF, arguing that the transition to SHA would expose the malpractices.
"I'm telling you; mark my words today, the day the Social Health Authority (SHA) takes root, 60% of the many clinics you see in the estates will close. Most hospitals that you thought were doing good work were open because of the fraud that was taking place in NHIF," he said.
