Medical Services Principal Secretary Dr. Harry Kimtai was yesterday at pains to explain the circumstances surrounding a complaint against 61-year-old Grace Njoki, whose dramatic storming of Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa’s meeting at Afya House last week led to her arrest.
During a midterm retreat in Naivasha, MPs pressed the PS to clarify the specific offense Njoki had committed when she visited a public office to express her frustrations over the failures of the Social Health Authority (SHA) program.
Leader of Majority Party in the National Assembly Kimani Ichung’wah set the tone by asking Ministry of Health officials to clarify who had filed the complaint against Ms. Mulei and what the alleged crime was.
“We just want to know two or three things. First, who was the complainant for this lady to be arrested? Was it SHA? Was it the ministry? Or was it the police acting on their own volition without investigation, by either SHA or the ministry? If it is the ministry, we want to know what was the complaint against Grace Njoki?” Ichung’wah Posed.
He went on: “We saw in the paper that she was released on a police bond of Ksh 50,000, if you are the complainant, have you withdrawn the complaint? Or is there anything criminal that you are pursuing this lady over?”
“Lastly, the altercation was at the Ministry’s boardroom, if I were you, the first person I would have charged or even fired was the security person at the ministry, otherwise, you are just creating a mountain out of a molehill, on something very small,” added Ichung’wah.
Ichung’wah, who is also the Kikuyu legislator explained that the lady (Grace Mulei) was just raising concerns, which in the same evening Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) conceded that there was a problem in the system.
“Systems are bound to have errors and mistakes every now and then,” he held.
In response, PS Kimtai confirmed that the Ministry of Health was the complainant in the case, which sparked sharp reactions from several lawmakers.
“The MOH is the complaint over the case, and the offense is trespass and causing commotion,” he said amid heckling from several MPs.
Grace Mulei, 61, made headlines last week after her dramatic arrest at Ladlan Hospital in Eastleigh, where she had gone to seek treatment.
Dr. Abdi Mohamed, the chairperson of the Social Health Authority (SHA) is the owner of the facility Grace was arrested.
She was charged with causing a disturbance at the Ministry of Health’s offices and was later released on a Sh10,000 cash bail.
“The ministry being a public place you cannot talk of trespass, if I were in the interest of the image of the ministry and the republic I will withdraw the complaint,” Speaker Moses Wetang’ula charged.
“In the interest of the image of the Ministry of Health and the public, the Ministry will withdraw the complaint,” PS Kimtai assured the lawmakers.
Ms. Mulei’s arrest, which followed her participation in a protest with other patients from Kenyatta National Hospital who entered the Ministry’s boardroom during a press conference by Health CS Deborah Mulongo, sparked widespread condemnation.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) also condemned the incident. “We will continue raising our voices until the government addresses these issues. President William Ruto must reexamine the challenges facing SHA,” a representative from the LSK stated.
