I'll use my past experience to better health — Kitui CEC nominee

Kitui Health and Sanitation executive nominee Ruth Koki has told the county assembly she will not disappoint if her nomination is approved.

She said she would leverage on her institutional memory to improve health service as she would be in familiar territory, having served in the same docket from 2013 to 2017.

Koki pledged to ride on her previous success and impeccable experience when she previously occupied the Health and Sanitation office to ensure Kitui people were healthier and more productive.

Koki, who served in the same docket when under Governor Julius Malombe, said the county cannot realise any meaningful development if its residents were sickly and unproductive due to ill health.

The nominee spoke on Friday when she appeared before the Kitui county assembly appointment committee chaired by speaker Kevin Katisya.

“Going forward, I plan to use the knowledge and the lessons learned during to make this county better. To make our people have better health so that they can be productive to reduce poverty and improve their economic status,” she said.

Koki said that when she served as the executive in the Malombe administration, she acquired a lot of skills and knowledge in terms of leadership and negotiation, especially for human resource and budgetary allocations.

“I achieved a lot during that time I worked as a [executive]. It was at the time that our county was rated number one in sanitation and maternal and child health,” she told the panelists.

“We improved the number of health facilities from 230 to 286 to reduce the distance, to reduce the cost and the time taken by our people as they sought health care services.”

She said during that time many indicators were improved in areas of family planning and HIV to make life better for Kitui people. She said she was instrumental in the establishment of a KMTC campus in Mwingi.

Koki also pledged to weed out theft of drugs and corruption among the health care workers. She said to curtail drugs leaks, all systems will be automated to track supply and dispensing of drugs.

“We want to instil a culture of honesty to our workers. Not all of them but a few who have those behaviours. These are resources we have been given in trust and to serve our people,” she said.

Koki was the first to be vetted on Friday during  the second day of vetting of the ten executive nominees that were presented  by Governor Malombe to the assembly on November 16.

Others on the line are Reuben Itiko (Roads and Publi work), Joyce Masila (Education and Training), Peter Nkunda (Water and Irigation) and Fredrick Kimanga (Lands and Housing).

(edited by Amol Awuor)