Health CS Kagwe appoints new team to steer NHIF

National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) headquarters in Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has appointed a four-member team to the Board of Directors of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Andrew Were Onyino, Albert Njeru, Ben Wakhungu Owich, and Dominic Ndegwah will serve a three-year term at the helm of the institution, effective today, March 25.

Their appointments, announced in a special gazette notice today come in the backdrop of the back and forth over the proposed changes in the NHIF Contributions Regulations, 2022.

Last month, the Ministry of Health published draft regulations that will see an increase in the NHIF contributions should they be passed.

The Health CS has also appointed Paul Njaria, Dorcas Wanjiru, John Kisengi, Miriam Wairimu Ndirangu, Diana Marion, and Stephens Oyaya to the board of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

They will also serve a three-year term, effective March 2022.

Other appointments announced in the gazette notice include that of James Mandere Atebe, who has been appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as the Chairperson of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

Atebe will be at the helm of the board for three years, effective today.

The president has also re-appointed Prof Olive Mugenda as the chairperson of the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) for a three-year term.

Mugenda will begin her second term in office next month, April 1.

Dr Diana Marion has been appointed as a member of the Kenya Consumer Protection Advisory Committee by Trade and Industrialisation CS Betty Maina.

Marion, who is also in the Pharmacy and Poisons Board will serve three years at the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee.