Several health professional bodies, including the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), Nursing Council of Kenya, Kenya healthcare Professional Oversight Authority, Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologists Board, Public Health Officers and Technicians Council should be declassified and should not be financed through budgetary allocations, according to cabinet decision.
According to the cabinet dispatch, the decision, announced during a Cabinet meeting on January 21, 2025, chaired by President William Ruto in Kakamega, is part of broader reforms aimed at curbing inefficiencies and streamlining public service delivery.
Other affected professional councils include, Public Health Officers and Technicians Council, Nursing Council of Kenya.
The shift raises concerns among healthcare professionals about how these bodies will sustain their operations and maintain their regulatory roles without government support.
According to the Cabinet Dispatch, the reforms are driven by increasing fiscal pressures and the need to manage growing demands for quality public services.
The Dispatch highlighted an alarming Ksh.94.4 billion in pending bills as of March 31, 2024, stemming from inefficiencies in the operations of 271 state corporations assessed by the National Treasury.
“These reforms have been necessitated by increasing fiscal pressures arising from constrained government resources, the demand for high-quality public services, and the growing public debt burden,” the Dispatch stated.
It added that, “The government’s review of state corporations identified redundancies and inefficiencies that required urgent attention. As a result, some agencies will be dissolved, while others will be restructured to align with their core mandates.”
Among those to be dissolved are the Kenya Tsetse Fly and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Council and the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa, with their functions reverting to their respective parent ministries.
The National Syndemic Diseases Control Council is slated for restructuring to enhance its efficiency and operational performance.
However, the reforms which aims to reduce wastage and improve service delivery may have far-reaching implications for the affected organizations and the sectors they oversee. With state funding withdrawn, these bodies will need to explore alternative revenue streams or risk operational challenges.
