Suzanne Silantoi, the Nairobi Health, Wellness and Nutrition CEC, holds a vision of the county hospitals having a well-catered for health workers, for the betterment of services to the people.
Nairobi’s youngest CEC member says that when the welfare of health workers is addressed, the trickle-down effect will be felt by residents who receive healthcare services in county hospitals.
“If you go to a facility, do they even have a place to lay their head if they’re on call? Do they have a place to change? Do they have a tea room?” Silantoi says. “A lot of our facilities didn’t even have toilets for staff.”
After handling health workers’ welfare, Silantoi says that health facilities should look into customer satisfaction and digitising the city’s healthcare system.
“If you go to Mama Lucy, for example, you don’t carry documents anymore. You walk into the facility, they log you into the facility. Then your number is called out, you go into the doctor’s room, and he pulls up your records. After consultation, he refers you to the laboratory. You walk to the laboratory, the lab pulls up your details. If you need to go to accounts, the accounts pull up your details,” Silantoi told The Star’s John Muchangi in an interview.
This, she says, helps in fastening the treating process as well as sealing corruption loopholes.
Who’s Suzanne Silantoi?
Silantoi was born and raised in Nairobi. Her dad is a Samburu while her mother is Maasai.
She attended primary school in the city before joining Moi Girls High School, Nairobi, for her secondary education. After passing with flying colours, she joined Kenyatta University.
She hit the headlines in 2017 when, at 23 years, she contested for the Nairobi Senatorial seat in the General Election.
She was unsuccessful in this regard, in a race that was won by current Governor Johnson Sakaja.
Silantoi would go on and pursue a master’s degree in public policy in the University of York, United Kingdom.
In 2022, she decided to join Governor Sakaja’s campaign team.
But Silantoi was back in the limelight in December 2022 when she was nominated by Sakaja as a County Executive Committee (CEC) for Inclusivity, Public Participation and Customer Service.
In July 2023, at 29 years, she was tasked with an even critical docket as CEC Health.
