Year: 2015-2016 Country: Kenya Requestor: A member of CSO, National Taxpayers Association (NTA) Issue area: Health
The issue/Story: The National Taxpayers Association (NTA), one of the partner organizations working with ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa on transparency in the education sector embarked on a study to establish staffing levels in tier 2 health facilities in the five counties within Nyanza region. These counties are Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Homa Bay and Kisii. Official letters were sent to the County Executive Committee (CEC) members’ in-charge of health in all the five counties requesting for data on the number of staff per health centre, their conditions of work and deficits. The findings of the study are of great importance as it will help identify gaps and needs regarding Human resources in the health sector of these sub-mentioned districts.
The challenge: was to access the necessary data to conduct the study.
The process: In Kisumu County, the CEC redirected the request to the Chief Officer of Health for action but failed to act and instead redirected the request further to the Human Resource Officer of the Health Department. Again, the Enhancing good governance through citizens’ access to information Case studies on access to information in Kenya, Malawi and Uganda 14 Human Resource Officer failed to act on the request and instead gave excuses on regular basis such as there was no electricity in office, the printer did not have cartridge, and internet connectivity was low, among others. Eventually, the request was forwarded to the Data Officer in-charge of Health Management and Information Systems who was very supportive. The data officer gave the contacts of all the officers’ in-charge of tier 2 facilities whom the requester contacted for interviews. The requestor managed to get the relevant information that the organization had requested from them.
Impact: The report on the study is yet to be launched in June 2016. However, an envisioned impact is an increase in the hiring of the additional human resource persons for health due to the current shortage in workforce in the health sector within Kisumu County. Also, services such as ambulatory and laboratory, among others, are expected to improve with time. NTA together with ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa are expected to use the findings of the report to lobby and advocate for the above changes.
Recommendations/Lessons Learned: The initial officers delayed the process making the study to stall at some point. The human resource officer to a larger extent contributed to the unnecessary delay of the study because he failed to act on the request yet there was the right person to act on it. Should the request have earnestly landed on the desk of the data officer, then the requester would have had the information on time. It is important to identify the right public office and the officer in-charge before submitting an information request to avoid delays and referrals from one office to the other. There will be a need to follow up with the implementation of the findings of the study once the report is launched. Shortage in staffing on tier 2 hospitals, among other tiers is a serious concern that should be dealt with effectively.
