A Vihiga politician has filed a petition at the national assembly asking MPs to nullify legal notices that transferred functions to devolved units.
Francis Ominde, who is the Federal Party of Kenya party leader wants MPs to declare null and void the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 116, legal notices 137-183 dated August 9, 2013 by the chairman of the defunct Transition Authority Kinuthia Wamwangi.
He also wants parliament to direct the Controller of Budget to stop authorisation of expenditures by counties on health sector operations.
Ominde wants parliament to direct national government to commit resources to the delivery of Universal Health Coverage without shifting the burden to county governments.
The petition filed on February 22 said though the constitution designates county health facilities and the promotion of primary healthcare as devolved functions, the strategic management of health service delivery is assigned to the national government.
“Transition Authority purported to execute a blanket transfer of functions to all county governments via Kenya Gazette Supplement No.116 (legal Notices Nos. 137-183 of August, 2013). Both the constitution and the Transition to Devolved Government Act, 2012 envisaged a process of capability assessment of the devolved units including, factoring in the cost elements as the basis for the allocation of resources for implementation on of transferred functions which was not done,” he said.
Ominde said it is not possible to presume the delegation of operations of health facilities as either belonging to county or national government because classification of the facilities has not been done.
The Health Act, 2017 only classifies health facilities into various levels.
He said as far as primary healthcare is concerned, only its promotion is devolved while the actual provision of primary healthcare is a function of the National government as part of policy implementation.
Ominde said it is unnecessary for county governments to burden themselves with the health function yet the Health Act No 21 of 2017 provides a comprehensive structural legal framework for the delivery of overall health policy aspirations for the country including the human resource requirements
The petition said technical human resource enablers for the delivery of UHC such as doctors, clinicians, nurses and pharmacists are regulated by their respective independent professional bodies.
But chairman of the Finance and Economic Planning committee at the Council of Governors Fernandes Barasa said health was fully devolved except level six.
“How can one say that health and agriculture are not devolved when counties manage health facilities up to level 5 hospitals and building new ones? Let the petitioner consult the constitution,” he said.
“President William Ruto recently the government is committed to transfer the remaining functions, which have been costed at Sh 275 billion,” he said.
Barasa said schedule 4 of the Constitution was clear on what functions were devolved.
The health docket has been under intense debate as to whether the county governments were capable of running it or not.
The Building Bridges Initiative, which was thrown out by courts for being unconstitutional had proposed establishment of a Health Service Commission to regulate health services.
