Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has received criticism from the Public Service Commission over recent appointments, announced through an internal memo dated 19 April. PSC, responding to a case filed at the Employment and Labour Relations court by Nakuru-based doctor Benjamin Gikenyi Magare, said the CS’s action was unlawful.
According to the PSC, the offices do not exist because they have not been constituted and approved as required by the law.
In his application before the ELRC in Nairobi, Gikenyi contends that by appointing the senior officers in the departments of Health and Medical Services, Nakhumicha usurped the agency’s legal and constitutional authority. The controversial medic has listed 59 interested parties in the case, in addition to the Attorney General and the commission who have also been named as respondents.
Gikenyi contends that by appointing the 59 health officers to newly-established positions at the level of Director General of Health, Deputy Director General of Health, Directors, and Divisional Heads in an acting capacity, Nakhumicha violated the authority and mandate of PSC. He claims that it was against the PSC Act to consistently appoint Patrick Amoth as the Acting Director of General Health for three years.
The majority of the office positions listed under the State Department for Medical Services do not exist, according to PSC Deputy Commission Secretary (Corporate Services) Remmy Mulati, because the commission hasn’t formed and approved them.
According to PSC, “the commission’s stance is that the acts taken by the Cabinet Secretary for Health through the contested internal memo of April 19, 2023 are unlawful because they usurp the commission’s statutory and constitutional authority.”
The law, as well as the Ministry’s approved staffing structure and organizational structure, are both broken by the appointments made by the Cabinet Secretary.
“The Constitution, the PSC Act of 2017, the PSC regulations of 2020, and the commission’s delegation document issued to the authorized officials on December 14, 2022,” according to Mulati, were all broken by the CS.
“Offices and positions for which persons may be appointed to hold or act in must first be established by the commission before such appointments are made in accordance with the law,” he contends.
He adds that the commission has not received the ministry’s report for a review of organizational structure and staffing levels for evaluation and approval. In a united response, the CS and the AG refute allegations of new appointments.
The CS was only communicating about the temporary deployment of officers resulting from the government’s Executive Order No. 1 of 2022 and its revision by Executive Order No. 1 of 2023, according to Stephen Khaemba, the deputy director of human resources at the ministry.
He claims that the directive established two state agencies for public health, medical services, and professional standards.
According to the petitioner (Gikenyi), “no officer has ever been assigned to any substantive or acting position in the ministry”.
“This is due to the ministry’s lack of an authorized organizational framework to communicate about appointments,” according to the CS’s response.
According to Khaemba, the CS temporarily deployed officers while waiting for the PSC to approve the organizational structure.
The CS requests that the doctor’s case be rejected for lack of merit. A hearing between the parties in the case is scheduled for July 27 before Justice Byram Ongaya.
Additional reporting by The Standard
