Siaya Whistleblower Saves County Medical Staff From Arbitrary Sacking

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In a dramatic turn of events a letter by a whistleblower has now saved over 60 medical staff at the Siaya County Referral Hospital from having their contract terms changed to locum.

The letter which was first circulated on Siaya’s Most Authoritative news website dalanews.co.ke was copied to Governor James Aggrey Orengo and Speaker George Owino Okode besides the relevant line ministries both at the county and national levels.

For three days now the letter is said to have created an uproar among senior personnel in the medical department and occasioned more than one urgent meeting between Health CECM Dr. Martin Odhiambo K’Onyango, Chief Officer Dr. Samuel Omondi Owino with the County Secretary Mr. Joseph Ogutu.

The letter sought to stop the County Government and Siaya Medical Superintendent Dr. Oduor from changing the contract terms of a number of medical staff to locum. It also requested that matters of harassment and non-payment of salaries (they were last paid in September 2023) be addressed.

Those who were going to be affected were 10 Clinical Officers, 25 Nurses, 3 Pharmaceutical Technologists, 9 Laboratory Officers and 4 Orthopedic Trauma Officers.

The county government dubbed the harassment as constructive dismissal of healthcare workers in Siaya but because of the repercussions from the national government the whole thing has been called off.

In the meantime, a few members of staff targeted for discipline because of their cooperation with the whistleblower will now have their cases reviewed through proper labour channels.

In other related news from Siaya the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission may make a move on 3 senior corrupt county officials attached to Finance and Economic Planning as early as Monday morning. Reports, yet-to-be-verified, indicated that former Governor Cornell Rasanga Amoth was interrogated by EACC Agents on Saturday with a view to establishing whether imprest withdrawals amounting to KES 400 million could be treated as normal.

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