Civil society organisations in the health sector have joined governors in protesting the planned restructuring of the National Aids Control Council (NACC).

They have threatened to go to court if a call to degazette an executive order establishing the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) to replace the NACC is not heeded.

The order signed by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe last month has since received a presidential approval.

President Uhuru Kenyatta approved the Executive Order on August 8, effectively empowering the new body to integrate other diseases including Tuberclosis, HIV/Aids, malaria, sexually transmitted infections, leprosy, lung disease and such other related diseases as may be specified by the Cabinet Secretary,” it states.

Emily Mukomunene, the director, Disease Eradication Civil Society Assemblies (DECSA) representing the CSOs said the order overlaps various legislations including the Health Act 2017, the HIV Prevention Control Act, 2006, Public health Act Cap 242, Malaria Prevention Act cap 246, the Public Finance Management Act 2012, and the spirit of the Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC).

“The new body does not have the capacity to carry out the expanded mandate based on their previous duties entrusted on them of coordination and service delivery,” she said, highlighting the latest HIV International Chamber of Commerce report dated August 29 which pinpointed inefficiency gaps in funds utilisation at 16 percent of the Global Fund grant with only one year of implementation.

The CSOs argued that much as Kenya is committed to the UHC agenda, Sustainable Development Goal No. 3, End TB targets, the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026, the executive order does not align with the goals and objectives of these frameworks.

“Restructuring NACC to NDSCC and assigning it more roles besides its main mandate of ending the HIV epidemic in the country by 2030, is simply not workable,” they said during a press conference in Nairobi. The county bosses have filed two separate suits against the Health ministry on grounds that the renaming of NACC by President Kenyatta through an Executive Order is an attempt to take over their functions since health is devolved.

The changes are contained in the Gazette Notice No130 of August 8.

Filed petition

Through lawyer Peter Wanyama, governors have filed a petition at the High Court challenging the renaming of the National Aids Control Council to the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council. The new agency will also be tackling terminal illness that have since been flagged as the leading causes of deaths in the country.

The governors have also filed another petition against the Health Ministry over the establishment of the Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority. The petition has been filed against Kagwe and the Attorney General, Paul Kihara with the Senate being enjoined as an interested party.

Kagwe vide a Legal Notice 142 of 2022 established the authority which the governors argue in their petition it’s an attempt by the executive to take over county functions.

The CSOs include, Stop TB Partnership Kenya, DECSA, Pamoja TB, the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), AIDs Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Kenya and Talaku Community among others.

“There was no public participation that was carried out by the government before the restructuring was done. The President erred in law to gazette a new organisation without our input,” said Mukomunene.

 She said the new body duplicates the mandate of the critical role played by the health ministry in policy making, disease surveillance, research, management of health information system and human resources of health.

“We are demanding that the government degazzetes the implementation of the executive order as a matter of urgency until adequate multisectoral stakeholder engagement through public participation,” said Mukomunene.