Activist sues to stop NHIF chief executive appointment

Activist Okiya Omtatah has filed a suit, accusing the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) board of “handpicking” Peter Kamunyo Gathege as chief executive.

In a case filed at the Labour Court under certificate of urgency, Mr Omtatah accused the NHIF board of abdicating its responsibility by appointing Dr Gathege without subjecting him to a “fair, open, competitive, merit-based process that is open to public participation.”

Mr Omtata argues that there is no record that Dr Gathege ever attended the interview held by the board on January 17.

The medic was picked to replace former CEO Geofrey Mwangi, who was charged with alleged loss of Sh500 million at NHIF. He replaced Nicodemus Odongo who had been in an acting capacity since November 2018. Mr Omtatah says Dr Gathege was not among the top three successful candidates, whose names were sent to Health Cabinet Secretary.

“The board abandoned a responsive recruitment process which commenced in the July 2019, and resulted in names of the top three successful candidates being presented to the Cabinet Secretary for appointment, although this was not necessary because the CS’s powers to appoint the CEO were extinguished through amendments made to the NHIF Act,” he said in the petition.

The activist says that without cancelling the initial recruitment, the board re-advertised the position in February 2020 and changed some of eligibility requirements by deleting the expression “any other relevant business field” and replacing it with the word “medicine.”

The board, he added, then abandoned the second recruitment and proceeded to handpick Dr Gathege as the new CEO.

He wants the court to quash the appointment and replace him with the person who emerged top in the first recruitment.