Uasin Gishu gubernatorial candidates Jonathan Bii Chelilim ‘Koti Moja’, Zedekiah Kiprop Buzeki and William Kirwa have highlighted their agenda for the health sector should they succeed in winning the August 9 poll.
The three faced off in a gubernatorial debate, aired live on Citizen TV on Sunday, July 3, 2022.
Speaking during the debate, Koti Moja, a UDA candidate pledged to finalize construction works for several hospitals that the current county government has invested in.
Among the projects include Ziwa Level 5 Hospital which is now at 70 per cent complete and Burnt Forest Hospital.
“I will embark on finishing the projects, equip them and also ensure we have specialized medical staff that will offer services to mwananchi,” said the UDA candidate.
He also pledged to put in place mechanisms that will ensure health workers are motivated, aside from coming up with a policy that will see decentralized procurement of drugs by health facilities directly from the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).
Buzeki, an independent candidate on his part said should he be elected governor, his first task in the health docket will be to establish a Level 5 Hospital.
The billionaire businessman says the lack of a county referral hospital and better-equipped health facilities has forced locals to seek medical services from private facilities whose cost is way too high.
“We will set up a county referral hospital as fast as possible so that we ensure our people get the services they deserve. As it is now, any Uasin Gishu patient going to MTRH queues like any other person from Kakamega Bungoma etc,” Buzeki said.
“At the ward level, we want to ensure health centres have laboratories and beds so that we reduce a high number of people seeking basic services to the town,” he added.
For William Kirwa who is vying for the Uasin Gishu gubernatorial seat on a United Democratic Movement (UDM) ticket, he will seek to assess if the current Uasin Gishu District Hospital has the capacity, and sufficient space to be upgraded to the county referral hospital.
He admits the current state of the health sector in Uasin Gishu is in a sorry state.
“If the district hospital cannot be a referral hospital, we have Rada where the government had planned for or Huruma Hospital because we need a referral facility,” Kirwa noted.
The three are battling for the over 500,000 Uasin Gishu votes, in the hope to convince the majority to support their bid to succeed Governor Jackson Mandago who is serving his second and last term.
