BY SAM ALFAN.
The appointment of kemsa board has been found to have been flawed and illegal.
Employment and labour court judge Maureen Onyango ruled that the appointments made by Health cabinet secretary Mutahi Kagwe violated the law.
The appointments were not competitive and lacked transparency, the court ruled.
Those who had been appointed Kemsa board members in the gazette notice of April 28, 2021 included Lawrence Wahome, Robert Nyarango, Terry Kiunge, and Linton Nyaga.
Justice Onyango, however, dismissed a case filed by Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and a lobby group seeking to block the restructuring of the agency. She said the ministry had not taken any action that would be considered unlawful.
The court also dismissed a petition seeking to stop the agency from firing its employees saying there was no evidence that any employee had been fired.
“It is apparent that the orders sought are pre-emptive of a redundancy process that has not taken place. The general notices are simply an indication of an intended redundancy. She said none of the employees has been fired.
On claims that there were plans to deploy members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and National Youth Service (NYS) at Kemsa, the judge said there was no evidence of such deployment.
“I find that none of the petitioners have proved that there has been any takeover or deployment of KDF or NYS officers at Kemsa. In the absence of such proof, the incidental prayers in the petitions fail,” she said.
KMPDU argued that the move to unilaterally sack employees of the agency and deploy NYS members in their place, was unfair and amounts to unjust termination of employment.
The union said there were no established criteria to determine the core and non-core members. Further, the union says medical doctors and pharmacists will suffer great prejudice, loss and damage unless the plans are stopped.
