Johnson Sakaja appoints Olive Mugenda, Mercy Mwangangi to Health Reforms Taskforce

According to the statement shared on Thursday, the Nairobi City County Health Reforms Taskforce will be chaired by Professor Olive Mugenda.

Prof. Mugenda will be assisted by six other members namely former Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi, Amref CEO Githinji Gitahi, Dr Dorcas Kemunto, Dr William Charles Fryda, Karei Mwenda and Dr Jarius Musumba who is the Nairobi County Secretary.

The team has been asked to review and propose reforms in the Nairobi City County health sector.

Governor Johnson Sakaja appoints Nairobi City County Health Reforms Taskforce will be chaired by Prof Olive Mugenda. Pulse Live Kenya

The taskforce will engage members of the public, county health staff and other stakeholders and review residents’ access to quality health services.

They will also be required to assess the status of all public health facilities and review the supply chain management of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products.

Additionally, the task force will assess the status of health information management and propose interventions for a comprehensive health information management system.

Mugenda will report on the current human resource capacity and propose an efficient mode of financing healthcare in the county.

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Governor Sakaja has given the team at least 45 days to perform the tasks and submit recommendations.

This comes after the county chief made an impromptu visit to Mama Lucy Hospital last weekend.

The first-time governor who was accompanied by his deputy Njoroge Muchiri made the visit to the facility after several mounting pressure from the public who are demanding that the governor cracks the whip on unattentive attendants.

While recording his displeasure about the operations in the hospital, Sakaja apologized for the deplorable state of the hospital promising to make sure everything takes the desired shape.

One of the issues that did not click well with the city of Nairobi governor was the sharing of beds by patients in the hospital.

Governor Johnson Sakaja at Mama Lucy hospital Pulse Live Kenya

He said his administration would equip it with more beds and expand the facility to accommodate more patients.

"We are finding mothers sharing beds after giving birth. There is a lady whom we found sitting on the bench immediately after giving birth. We are out of capacity here and there is a need for expansion and for other facilities to be working.

"We will take better care of you. Mothers should not be sharing beds, patients not being attended to on time, drugs not being available, and a lot more. I will not rest until we achieve this," he confirmed.

The governor ordered the immediate release of mothers and patients whom the facility was holding even after being discharged for the failure of clearing their dues, promising that the county government would foot the bills.

The hospital was recently put on the spot following the death of a 28-year-old woman, Maureen Anyango who died after delivering a set of twins on September 6.