Context
The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) has advocated for the formation of a Health Service Commission for the management of the human resource component of the health system. The Health Act of 2017 fell short of this and instead created an advisory body KHHRAC.
KMA has also been accused on sending young female doctors without much influence to important health policy meetings. KMA prides itself in mentoring young doctors to take up leadership positions. KMA is also bing in gender mainstreaming at the leadership level and has succeeded quite a bit on this.
KHHRAC Strategic plan stakeholder meeting
It may have slipped unnoticed but last week the Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council (KHHRAC) convened a strategic stakeholder meeting to review its Draft Strategic Plan. The session provided a platform for policymakers, professional associations, health workers, regulators, and academic institutions to co-create and critique strategies for health human resource (HRH) governance. The session was guided by KHHRAC’s core mandate as enshrined in the Health Act (2017): to ensure harmonized standards, happy and well-supported healthcare workers, and sustainable HRH systems.
KMA rep in KHHRAC Meeting – Dr Faith Anne
In typical Kenya Medical Association mentorship style we sent Faith Anne Nyagichuhi to represent KMA and articulate the KMA position. Faith is a PreIntern waiting to start her internship in July 2025. KMA has engaged her as conference organizing intern. She has the #52KMAConf under her list of successes.
How to improve internship – Gen Z Presentation
Faith did not disappoint and immediately introduced herself as the #GenZ doctor representing not only KMA but Young Doctors Network (YDN) of KMA. She then immediately gave input on internship as follows:
– Delays in Posting: I proposed that internship postings align with the start of the financial year and the budget revision cycle to reduce extended waiting periods, which currently stretch up to 14 months for some cohorts. Furthermore, this national internship calendar should be communicated to universities to ensure that training programs graduate health workers in time for deployment within either of the two annual posting windows.
– Overlapping Posting System: To stagger intern postings so that outgoing and incoming cohorts overlap by at least one month. This ensures better patient care, preserves institutional memory, and smoothens handovers.
– Accreditation Standards: Internship site accreditation should not be based solely on clinical infrastructure but must include welfare criteria—housing, security, mentorship, and mental health support.
– Mental Health of the Young Doctor: Prioritize structured mental health support services for interns to tackle stress and burnout. Conduct quarterly intern satisfaction surveys and supervision quality audits should be instituted to ensure accountability.
– Indexing Considerations: The need to consider healthcare workers from the point of indexing, not only after graduation. Students are healthcare workers in training and are affected by policies impacting education, welfare, and employment.
The input of Faith evoked a suggestion to include healthcare students in health workforce policy formulation and stakeholder meetings.
Key Strategic Issues from the Draft Plan discussed
KHHRAC’s Strategic Plan aims to address persistent and systemic gaps in health workforce planning, training, deployment, and welfare. The following strategic goals were analysed under the five thematic areas:
1. Leadership, Management and Governance
o Strengthened leadership and stewardship of the HWF o Advocacy and communication
2. Standards and Regulations
o Harmonized management of interns’ and HCPs’ welfare o Harmonized HRH staffing norms and standards
3. Capacity Building and Competence Development
o Strengthened internship and healthcare professionals’ development
4. HRH Data Management
o Available and accessible HWF data utilized for decision-making
5. Research and Innovation
o Strengthen the role and impact of research and innovation for HWF.
Faith submitted a report to KMA NEC and her conclusions and reflections summarize the need to include and mentor young doctors into the policy space. And I will quote verbatim what her recommendations to KMA were:
“Conclusion & Reflection
This KHHRAC strategic review meeting reflected an increasing momentum toward reforms that value not just workforce numbers but also the quality, dignity, and sustainability of employment. The inclusion of diverse voices—from pre-interns to seasoned professionals—enriched the dialogue and underscored the need for health workforce policies to be inclusive, pragmatic, and future-proof.
As a young doctor and policy contributor, this engagement reaffirmed the importance of embedding health worker welfare, mentorship, and transition pathways into national HRH strategies. The future of Kenya’s healthcare system depends not only on infrastructure, but also on how we treat and support the humans who drive it.”
Whereas KMA has advocated for a Health Service Commission to manage health workforce in the country, KMA advocates in the meantime for strengthening and funding of KHHRAC so that it can have teeth to go beyond advising.
To finish off I will quote the chairman of KHHRAC Prof Frank Perry Wafula who said
“We loved having Faith Anne Nyagichuhi around. Very articulate and clear on where we have been going wrong and how to fix that. Thank you Kenya Medical Association”
The performance of Faith has demonstrated that the mentorship at KMA is working and that the future for health and the Association is bright.
Dr Simon Mucara Kigondu is an obstetrician and gyneacologist and the President of Kenya Medical Association
#Mentorship
#GirlDoctor
#Health Service Commission