There was drama at National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) headquarters today as board chairman Dr. Richard Muga asked NHIF chief executive Richard Kerich and four other managers to step aside.
Hours later, the chairman of NHIF board announced that Dr. Kerich and the four had been sacked only for that decision to be nullified by Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyongo. The minister went ahead to turn tables around and instead suspended board chairman Dr. Richard Muga for making unilateral decisions in sacking Dr. Kerich and the other four.
Dr. Muga maintained he was still the chairman of the NHIF board and that only the president’s directive could remove him from that position.
These developments came as a results of the chief executive and management being accused of allocating NHIF funds to fraudulent schemes. This was the reason why Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) secretary-general Francis Atwoli called for a nationwide strike by workers to reject NHIFs bid to implement its new contribution tariffs. (Read; COTU Calls Strike Over NHIF Rates)
The strike was to take effect 14 days after the Labour Day celebration where Atwoli made the announcement. COTU was asking that NHIF be stopped from deducting workers based on the new tariff as the low income earners would not be able to access proper medical services while the money was diverted to other purposes including political campaigns. The strike was called off after NHIF shelved its plans.