Nairobi, April 16 -- Dadaab MP Farah Maalim's assertion that nurses are unfit for senior leadership roles such as chief officers, county executives or heads of hospitals, is not only factually incorrect, but retrogressive.

At a time when health systems globally are striving for multidisciplinary leadership, such comments risk dragging Kenya backwards. The strong responses from the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) and other bodies are therefore necessary. They rightly framed the issue as one of professional dignity, legal clarity, and the future of healthcare governance in Kenya.

The notion that healthcare operates as a rigid hierarchy, with doctors at the apex and nurses as subordinates belongs to a bygone era. Contem...