{"id":120750,"date":"2025-09-02T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/governors-meet-cs-duale-amid-storm-over-uhc-staff-absorption\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T09:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:06:00","slug":"governors-meet-cs-duale-amid-storm-over-uhc-staff-absorption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/governors-meet-cs-duale-amid-storm-over-uhc-staff-absorption\/","title":{"rendered":"Governors meet CS Duale amid storm over UHC staff absorption"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 2 \u2013 Governors on Tuesday met with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale at the Council of Governors (CoG) headquarters in Nairobi as tensions flared over a directive to absorb Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff, a move county chiefs dismissed as unilateral and unfunded.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meeting follows a directive by Duale that 7,414 UHC staff, cleared through a recent verification exercise, be absorbed into permanent and pensionable terms starting this month<\/p>\n

He further disclosed that 215 individuals flagged as \u201cghost workers\u201d or lacking professional qualifications had been struck off the payroll.<\/p>\n

The ministry has framed the directive as part of efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery under the UHC programme.<\/p>\n

But governors say the order undermines devolution and ignores constitutional requirements for consultation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry cannot alter the contracts of the UHC staff without the involvement of County Governments,\u201d said COG chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council will only accede to the variation of the same upon the increase of the equitable share of revenue to factor the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governors are demanding Sh7.7 billion to cover salaries in line with SRC-approved scales, as well as Sh9.4 billion to clear gratuity payments owed to staff under contractual terms before any transfer takes place.<\/p>\n

They also insist that the ongoing verification exercise be validated jointly and an official report shared before the transition begins.<\/p>\n

While reaffirming counties\u2019 commitment to strengthening healthcare, Abdullahi stressed that staff absorption must not be forced on devolved units without resources.<\/p>\n

He further called on health workers\u2019 unions to exercise restraint amid rising agitation over pay and labor conditions, noting that counties were working to address grievances but required additional resources from the national government to implement return-to-work agreements.<\/p>\n

The governors also faulted the Public Service Commission for approving career guidelines for health cadres without their involvement as employers, warning that the financial implications had not been factored into county budgets.<\/p>\n

They demanded the inclusion of county staff in the national salary review, which excluded devolved workers in the 2024\/25 fiscal year, leaving a financing gap of Ksh4.77 billion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 2 \u2013 Governors on Tuesday met with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale at the Council of Governors (CoG) headquarters in Nairobi as tensions flared over a directive to absorb Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff, a move county chiefs dismissed as unilateral and unfunded. The meeting follows a directive by Duale that 7,414 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}