Murkomen Fights Off President Uhuru Over Signed Health Law Amends

Kipchumba Murkomen

Upon his return from a two-week hiatus from the public eyes, His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law The Health Laws (Amendment) Bill of 2018 and the Assumption of the Office of County Governors Bill, an action that has not augured with majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen.

The Senate is now advising the public not to adhere to a law signed by the president that amended sections of the health act. According to Kipchumba Murkomen, the law was signed without the participation of the Senate, yet it deals with the devolved function inclusive of Health, terming it as the sovereignty of the upper house.

“That is not law for the purpose of our constitution. That law cannot be enforced anywhere in the republic, because it did not go through the required legal mechanism of passing the law,” Murkomen took a jibe at the President.

Reiterating on the issue, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula said: “To imagine that the National Assembly can pass a bill relating to health, and take it to the President for assent, is a very serious assault on the constitution in general and this house in particular.”

The new health law amended the Pharmacy and Poisons Act (Cap 244), the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Cap 244), the Nurses Act (Cap 257), and the Kenya Medical Training College Act (Cap 261). Others include the Nutritionists and Dieticians Act, the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority Act, the Counselors, and Psychologists Act, the Physiotherapists Act, the Health Records, and Information Managers Act and the Clinical Officers (Training, Registration, and Licensing) Act.

Other members of threw shade at the brains behind the President decision calling them incompetent leader. The Senate will be moving to court to seek advisory opinion over the  President signing the amended Health Bill into law. They will not only be looking at this health act but will throw it back to other laws passed without their input.