Counties have begun the process of renewing contracts for Universal health coverage (UHC) staff despite resistance from health unions.
The contracts will be renewed for another period of three years under the same terms.
In a letter from Council of Governors CEO Mary Mwiti dated June 21, all county public service boards have been directed to commence the process of contract renewal for another three years.
The letter is directed to all chairpersons county service boards and secretaries of county public service boards and copied to county executive committee members for health, county secretaries, county chief officers for health, county directors for health and directors for human resources for health.
Mwiti said this was after a letter from the Ministry of Health dated May 31 and a virtual meeting held on June 5 between CoG, secretaries to the county public service boards and county chief officers for health.
“In the letter, the CS granted approval for renewal of the contract for UHC staff for another three years under the same terms,” Mwiti said.
“In the virtual meeting, the council clarified the issues that were not clear and guided the county public service boards to begin the process for the renewal of the UHC staff contracts to enable the procedure to be seamless and avoid service disruption in the health facilities,” she added.
The approval followed intense lobbying by governors to avert potential disruption of health services in the counties following the expiry of the contracts on May 31.
The national and county governments had in recent been engrossed in a standoff over the fate of the 9,000 health workers contracted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The lot was hired on a three-year contract to boost the response to the pandemic as well as smooth implementation of universal health coverage (UHC).
The governors argued that counties cannot absorb the workers as doing so would balloon their wage bill, while the ministry insisted that health is a devolved function.
Nine health workers’ unions petitioned the Senate to inquire and unlock the standoff.
In the petition, the unions said the health workers were hired in April 2020 and tied down to a three-year contract.
They were reportedly paid half what their colleagues under permanent and pensionable terms take home.
In their submissions, they argued that there exists a payment disparity between colleagues whom they perform equal work on permanent and pensionable terms in terms of remunerations, allowances and pensionable benefits.
