Kericho Governor misses WHO Geneva forum in visa row

The Council of Governors (CoG) yesterday criticised the Executive after Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony and Makueni Health Executive Andrew Mulwa were denied visas to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend an international health event.

The two failed to secure visas to travel to Geneva to join Ministry of Health officials in a World Health Organisation (WHO) forum due to last-minute applications.

Unlike the county chiefs, national government officials led by Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia had already secured travel documents and were in Geneva.

"The leaders have been denied visas," confirmed the council Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Mogeni.

Efforts to reach Prof Chepkwony were unsuccessful as his phones were switched off.

An invite seen by The Standard indicates WHO wrote to the Health Principal Secretary on April 14, 2015, and forwarded a letter addressed to Macharia.

"The 68th World Health Assembly will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from May 18 to 26, 2015. The purpose of this letter is to request the names of the Kenya delegation. We will be grateful if you forward us the advance credential at the earliest opportunity for onward transmission to the GBS secretariat," WHO Representative in Kenya Custodia Mandlhate said in the letter.

But even after receiving the invite in April, the Ministry of Health wrote to Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma on May 12, six days before the date of the event, inviting him to attend the forum in his capacity as the CoG health committee chairman.

clearance to travel

A letter sent to Ranguma by Macharia also asked him to have Kisumu Health Executive Elizabeth Ogaja from Kisumu accompany them.

However, Ranguma informed the CoG, which then held consultations and resolved to have Chepkwony and Dr Mulwa represent them in Geneva.

 Mogeni then wrote to Macharia on May 14 saying the CoG had replaced Ranguma and Dr Ogaja with Chepkwony and Mulwa respectively.

On the same day, Ms Mogeni wrote to the Ministry of Devolution seeking clearance for the two to travel.

On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to Switzerland requesting assistance to facilitate Chepkwony and Mulwa to secure Schengen Visas to enable them to travel, but this effort was too little too late.

An officer from the CoG, who had been dispatched to the Embassy to try and secure travel documents, was informed that the names of the two were not in the invite list.

"We cannot accuse the Swiss Embassy of denying us a visa but it appears this was a deliberate move by the ministry to ensure no representative of the counties attends," a CoG official said.

The council said the Government's actions show that it is spoiling for a fight and vowed not to "play ball".

"We were surprised that the host country of an international meeting would refuse to issue a visa on grounds that you are time-barred. It was the national government that was to give names of participants and as CoG we had nominated Chepkwony to represent us," said CoG Chairman Isaac Ruto.

Macharia and his PS Khadija Kassachoon were not immediately available for comment.