Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has pledged to urgently address long-standing concerns affecting Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff.

During a consultative meeting with the Kenya Union of Nurses (KNUN) and the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) on Wednesday June 2, 2025 at Afya House, the Health CS confirmed that funds have been secured to transition eligible UHC staff to permanent and pensionable terms.

However, he emphasized that this will be implemented only after a verification exercise scheduled for July 2025 is completed. The verification will be conducted by joint teams from the national and County Governments, working alongside union representatives, to carry out a comprehensive headcount and reconcile national and county payrolls.

“This is a clean-up process to protect public resources. Only staff who are duly verified and submit the required documentation will be transitioned,” said CS Duale.

He noted that some UHC staff were directly employed by counties and must be properly accounted for during the verification.

The result of the verification will guide the signing of the Return-to-Work Formula in August 2025, enabling payroll harmonization, staff transition to permanent terms, and the eventual devolution of payroll management to county governments.

Duale urged the unions to encourage their members to cooperate fully with the verification teams and submit all necessary documents.

During the meeting they covered the implementation of the revised salary structures by the Salaries and Renumeration  Commission (SRC), the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and the integration of specialized clinical officers and nurses into the Social Health Authority (SHA) framework.

The CS further appealed for unions support for the recently unveiled Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, calling it a significant milestone in transforming Kenya’s health sector.

He insisted on accelerating progress towards Vision 2030 and reinforcing BETA priorities.

Present at the meeting were KNUN Secretary General Seth Panyako, KUCO Secretary General and CEO George Gibore, Dr. Daniel Mwai (Advisor to the Presidential Economic Transformation Council), Eng. Anthony Lenaiyara (Acting CEO, Digital Health Agency), and senior officials from the Ministry of Health.