The National Hospital Insurance Fund Board is on the spot for allegedly handpicking Peter Kamunyo as the new CEO without subjecting his appointment to due process.
This issue came to light in a petition to the Senate by petitioner Alexander Irungu Wanjiru concerning Kamonye’s appointment as NHIF boss. Wanjiru was one of the applicants.
Wanjiru states there was no competitive recruitment or consideration of merit, despite provisions in the Constitution that recruitment must be competitive and merit essential.
The petitioner narrates that in July 2019, the NHIF Board advertised to fill the vacant position of CEO and on January 17, 2020, invited shortlisted candidates for interviews.
However, sometime in February 2020, NHIF Board chair Hannah Muriithi and Health PS Susan Mochache informed the Departmental Committee on Health in the National Assembly the interview process on January 17, 2020, was conclusive.
Wanjiru claimed the PS told the committee that names of the top three candidates had been forwarded to outgoing Health CS Sicily Kariuki.
Further, the Board was awaiting for the appointment of a substantive Health Cabinet Secretary to finalise the appointment of the NHIF boss from the names of the top three candidates, he said.
But without cancelling the initial recruitment process of January 17, 2020, the NHIF Board proceeded to re-advertise the position of the CEO on February 24, 2020, and changed some eligibility requirements.
“On March 20, 2020, the NHIF Board held a special meeting on the recruitment of a new NHIF CEO, handpicked and appointed Dr Peter Kamunyo Gathege as the new NHIF CEO, without subjecting the appointment to a competitive process,” the petition read.
It added, “The board refused to appoint a CEO from among the persons who had emerged top at the earlier interviews."
Wanjiru, who is a former director at Mater Misericordiae Hospital and one of the applicants for the CEP position, noted that despite addressing the matter with relevant authorities, all of them had failed to respond.
He now wants the Senate to investigate with a view to ensuring due process as stipulated by the Constitution and the National Hospital Insurance Fund Act on appointment as CEO is adhered to by the NHIF Board to safeguard public interest.
Speaker Ken Lusaka directed the House’s Health committee to investigate the allegations raised in the petition and file a report to the House in 60 days.
"In terms of Standing Order No 232(2), the Committee is required, in not more than 60 calendar days from the time of reading the Prayer, to respond to the Petitioner by way of a Report addressed to the Petitioner, and laid on the Table of the Senate," Lusaka said.
(Edited by V.Graham)
