Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka has promised radical changes in the Bungoma health sector if elected governor.
Lusaka seeks to recapture the seat he lost to Governor Wycliffe Wangamati in 2017.
The Speaker said all is not well in the county's health sector as most departments have collapsed.
He spoke during a meeting with Bungoma county medical workers held at his campaigns command centre on Monday.
Lusaka said most medical workers in the county had worked as casuals for more than five years, which was against the labour laws and was consequently lowering their morale.
"You can't put professionals on contract for all these years, yet they perform the same functions like those on permanent employment," he said.
The Speaker said once elected, he will propose a supplementary budget to ensure medical staff are employed on permanent basis.
He said the salaries between different medical staff working for different government facilities has huge disparities, which is not good.
Lusaka's sentiments come in the wake of complaints by the county medical staff decrying lack of harmonisation of salaries.
The speaker also promised the medics prompt promotions saying it is a government practice to give promotions after some time.
He further said he will ensure he gives grants to medical staff for further studies and capacity building.
"Medicine is a dynamic field and it is prudent that practitioners are regularly taken for further studies, to keep them abreast with new trends," Lusaka said.
The gubernatorial hopeful also promised to hire more staff as most county medical facilities were under-staffed.
"You find one nurse manning a health centre, which obviously makes them overwhelmed. They miss out on their rights to offs and annual leave," he said.
Lusaka said he will also promote health workers into facility managers saying they are better placed to run hospitals.
He further said he will set up a blood bank and a mental unit in Bungoma.
Currently, Bungoma depends on the neighbours Kisumu and Eldoret blood banks.
The speaker said he will also employ more specialists in the fields that are lacking like oncology, paediatric and neuro.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
