MPs call for law change to address KMTC training and management dispute
Education
By
Irene Githinji
| Feb 26, 2026
The National Assembly Committee on Health has called for urgent legal reforms and proper funding alignment to end a long-running dispute in the management and student placement process at the Kenya Medical Training Colleges (KMTC).
The committee has told Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale that the unending back-and-forth between ministries and institutions is undermining training, staffing, and service delivery.
Seme MP, James Nyikal, said the country could no longer afford policy inconsistencies on critical health training matters.
“We can’t keep moving back and forth as a country. The question is simple: who carries the function and who carries the money?” Dr. Nyikal posed.
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The unresolved issues on KMTC revolve around control, admissions, and oversight of health training institutions, and how health sector training is coordinated between Ministries of Health and Education.
The issues centre on overlapping mandates between the two ministries, with placement of KMTC students currently handled by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), which falls under the Ministry of Education.
On the other hand, admissions and oversight of KMTC institutions are managed by the Ministry of Health through the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards.
But Nyikal, who chairs the committee, said the system has created confusion, administrative delays, and policy inconsistencies that are affecting training and planning in the health sector.
He insisted that concurrence at the Cabinet level will not amount to a policy shift, but implementation of an existing legal position.
“In your office, CS, there is an advisory letter indicating that KMTC should admit students. That advice followed a formal inquiry to the Attorney General. It is now for you to execute at the Cabinet level what is already lawful, unless the law is changed,” said Nyikal.
The committee has previously held discussions with the Ministry of Education on the matter.
“Without clear legal and financial alignment, disputes over control will persist, undermining the training of health professionals at a time when the country faces staffing shortages,” Nyikal insisted.
But Duale described the situation as a ‘hot potato’, which requires collective political responsibility.
“This matter has been going on for about 10 years. If you want me to touch this hot potato, we must share it. Unless Parliament changes the law, what the courts are doing is legal, and it will not just disappear,” the CS explained.
He said he would formally seek and circulate advice from the Attorney General, copy the Education Ministry and the Head of Public Service, and involve Parliament in resolving the legal impasse.
The CS also told the committee that he has engaged his Education counterpart, Julius Ogamb on harmonising control over health training.
“You are the people who change the law, are you,” he told MPs. “If you say we will change it, then we will align accordingly. Until then, we must operate within the law. There is no way the entire training of the health sector can be run by the Ministry of Education alone. They own the institutions, yes, but we own the curriculum and the health ecosystem. There must be a link,” Duale said.