Sakaja Gives Mercy Mwangangi New Role In Nairobi Govt

Nairobi Governor, Johnson Sakaja, has appointed outgoing Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr Mercy Mwangangi as a member of a task force to review and propose reforms in the Nairobi City County Health Sector.

Mwangangi was appointed to an 8-member team that will be led by former Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor, Prof Olive Mugenda.

Other members include Dr Anastacia Nyalita, Dr Githinji Gitahi, Ms Dorcas Kemunto, Dr William Charles Fryda and Karei Mwenda. Nairobi county's Jairus Musumba has been appointed to the secretariat.

Former Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor, Prof Olive Mugenda. /CAPITAL GROUP

Part of the roles of the task force includes reviewing the citizens’ access to Quality Health Services, assessing the status of all Public Health Facilities, reviewing the Supply Chain Management of Pharma and Non-Pharma products and assessing the status of Health Information Management and proposing interventions towards a comprehensive Health Information Management System. 

Other roles include reviewing the current Human Resource Capacity and assessing the Gaps and proposing an Efficient Health Financing Model. 

"The Taskforce shall prepare and submit its report to the Governor of Nairobi City County Government together with its recommendations within Forty-Five (45) days from the date of its appointment. The Office of the Governor shall constitute the secretariat of the Taskforce," Sakaja stated. 

The task force, in the performance of its mandate, may, as the need arises, co-opt persons to advise or offer assistance in any area the task force may consider necessary.

The health sector will be among Sakaja's key areas that he must address as Nairobi governor. In his manifesto, he promised to implement an Integrated Hospital Information Management System (IHIMS) and health financing by settling debt and allowing a smooth supply of medicine, in a bid to give the capital city's healthcare system a new face.

Mwangangi's appointment now leaves Kenyans with many questions especially with the looming Cabinet structure to be announced by President William Ruto, on whether she will be spared by the changes, elevated to the Cabinet Secretary or replaced as CAS.

She joined the University of Nairobi for a degree in Medicine and graduated in 2009. The 36-year-old is an alumnus of Pangani Girls High School and in 2015, she graduated with a Master of Health Economics and Policy from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Mwangangi revealed that she opted to pursue medicine as an opposite to a career that was pursued by her mother, law.

“My mother is a lawyer and I thought I am not going to be a lawyer. So what is the opposite of a lawyer? I said doctor,” she told the Nation.

The sultry-voiced CAS burst into fame in 2020 during the war against the COVID-19 pandemic and had wowed every Kenyan, especially men, and journalists mesmerised by her eloquent response to questions.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi addressing journalists on March 23, 2022. /MINISTRY OF HEALTH