Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopha Mailu has exposed a rude letter that was delivered to him after he delegated the ministry’s Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri to deal with the doctor's strike.
Mailu shocked the Senate after he revealed that Muraguri wrote back to him on February 8, 2017, indicating that he could not mediate talks with the doctors, “due to other commitments of greater national importance”.
The Daily Nation had last week reported that Muraguri was leading a team of government officials in mobilising voter registration in his home county of Nyeri.
Mailu presented the image of a manager who did not have any powers over his juniors, even admitting to the Senate that Muraguri’s actions amounted to insubordination.
Under the law, the President appoints Principal Secretaries as the accounting officers in their respective ministries – they are, however, expected to take on the responsibilities assigned to them by the CSs.
The bewildered members of the Senate Health Committee asked Mailu to resign immediately if he is unable to end the impasse that has paralysed hospital operations for more than two months.
“You are the driver of policy as CS. You are painting a picture of a helpless person being subjected to insubordination by your junior. If you can’t solve this problem, resign from the Cabinet, and let this rot go to somebody else. You are embarrassing us as doctors,” Kakamega Senator Dr Bonny Khalwale stated.
However, the CS expressed hope that the strike would soon be resolved, adding that the government was committed to quick resumption of the talks that have stalled since the imprisonment of the doctors on Monday.
