Kitui may not recruit health workers to help contain the coronavirus outbreak for lack of a public service board.
The term of the previous board expired last year and a new one has not been put in place. The PSB is in charge of county recruitments.
Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya has said the new medical staff will start work by next week, but Kitui is not in a position to meet the deadline.
According to figures released by the national government, Kitui was expected to hire 138 health workers—including nurses, clinical officers, lab technologists, pharmacists and a radiographer.
On February 14, in a bid to address the lacuna, Governor Charity Ngilu presented six nominees to assembly speaker George Ndotto for vetting in the House.
Former Kitui Kenya Medical Training College principal Francis Kiliku was proposed as chairman.
The nominees were vetted by the Appointment committee chaired by Ndotto in early March. However, the assembly adjourned its sittings indefinitely before the committee report was presented for voting.
The House went on recess after coronavirus cases were reported in the country.
Ngilu has sued the county assembly to compel it to make a decision on the nominees.
The civil suit, in which Ndotto is named as the second respondent, was filed on April 8 under a certificate of urgency. It will be heard interparty on April 14 before Justice Onesmus Mutuku.
Ngilu's administration wants the court to order Ndotto to convene an emergency sitting to approve the nominees to allow recruitment of health workers.
Alternatively, the county is seeking court orders to allow Ngilu to temporarily approve the names of the nominees and mandate them to hire medical staff.
Edited by R.Wamochie
