President Uhuru Kenyatta Thursday directed the Health and Public Service ministries to develop a welfare package to reward health workers in the frontline of efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Kenyatta said such an incentive would motivate doctors, nurses and other cadres of health workers, even as nine more cases of the virus were confirmed in the country yesterday.
The presidential directive effectively settles the dispute between the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the county governments as to whether health workers deserve additional pay.
President Uhuru Kenyatta Thursday directed the Health and Public Service ministries to develop a welfare package to reward health workers in the frontline of efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Kenyatta said such an incentive would motivate doctors, nurses and other cadres of health workers, even as nine more cases of the virus were confirmed in the country yesterday.
The presidential directive effectively settles the dispute between the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the county governments as to whether health workers deserve additional pay.
The Council of Governors has been locked in a war of words with the SRC over the legality of allowances that some county governments have proposed.
In yet another win for the counties, payment of billions of shillings owed to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) has been put on hold for three months in a presidential directive aimed at freeing up more funds for humanitarian interventions.
The President yesterday directed Kemsa to reschedule all payments due from the devolved units to July in a raft of measures to boost the fight against coronavirus.
The move is a major boost to counties that have been struggling to pay at least Sh2.3 billion in debt for the supply of drugs and medical equipment to their health facilities from 2013.
This comes a day when the Ministry of Health confirmed nine new infections bringing the tally to 234 cases and an additional death, taking the fatalities to 11.
“I hereby direct that the counties receive a three-month waiver from Kemsa for the purchase of face masks and protective gear to boost our fight against the virus,” President Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation.
Poor households, the elderly and people with disabilities will also get a boost from the State in the latest move to cushion them from the economic meltdown caused by the coronavirus.
WEEKLY STIPEND
An undisclosed number of poor households in Nairobi will receive a weekly stipend to cushion them at a time they have lost jobs while others are grappling with reduced income as the virus takes it’s a toll.
The stipend marks the piloting of a plan that Mr Kenyatta said will be extended to other counties to ease economic pain during limited activities.
President Kenyatta said that Sh8.5 billion under the cash-transfer programme for senior citizens for April has been released and a further Sh500 million for people with severe disabilities.
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