MPs raise concern over low pay, arrears for community health workers

Members of Parliament have raised concern over the low pay and accumulated arrears owed to Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), warning that failure to facilitate the frontline health workers could undermine the programme.

This was after Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa told Parliament that CHEWs in Mitooma District had complained that they had not received their allowances.

Tayebwa said he attended the pass-out ceremony of the community health workers on October 5, 2026, and witnessed their role in linking communities to healthcare services.

He said the workers perform important basic health functions, including checking people's blood pressure and sugar levels, and urged MPs to support funding for the programme and its expansion to all parts of the country.

"I call upon the minister to see how best we can roll it out to the whole country. Our work here is to support you in terms of budget to ensure that primary healthcare is given priority," Tayebwa said while chairing the plenary today (October 6).

However, he expressed concern that the workers were already complaining about delayed payments. "But these people have also complained that they have not received their allowances," he said.

Tayebwa said the Director General of Health Services had informed him that the Ministry of Health had already written to the Ministry of Finance seeking a supplementary budget to address the funding shortfall.

"I call upon members to support it. It's a critical programme for the whole country," he said.

Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi also asked the Health Ministry to provide an update on the unpaid facilitation of CHEWs, recalling an earlier commitment by the ministry to follow up on their arrears.

He said some of the workers had gone for years without receiving their facilitation.

"They have gone donkey years without being paid. The State Minister for Health admitted that they have gone for years without being paid. Let them get what is owed to them even if it is small," Ssenyonyi said.

Ssenyonyi also called for their monthly facilitation to be increased. He, however, said the immediate priority should be clearing the money already owed to them before discussing an increase in their allowances.

Responding to the concerns, Health Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi acknowledged that CHEWs are paid Sh150,000 per month and that some have outstanding arrears.

Baryomunsi said the CHEWs programme is a new initiative under which two people are trained in every parish to serve as frontline health workers.

The programme, he noted, has so far been rolled out in 70 districts, with government targeting coverage of all districts.

He attributed some of the payment challenges to workers who were transitioning from programmes previously supported by development partners to government financing.

"We are engaging the Minister of Finance to provide money to clear them," Baryomunsi said.

He added that the Health Ministry was engaging the Ministry of Finance to secure resources both to clear the arrears and sustain the monthly payments.

The minister, however, did not give a specific date by which the arrears would be paid.

Rukiga District Woman MP Dr Sylvia Alinaitwe supported the proposal to introduce the CHEWs in Rukiga, saying many villages lack health centres where residents can seek treatment.

The MPs argued that CHEWs could help bridge the gap between communities and formal health facilities by providing basic health services and identifying cases requiring referral.

Tayebwa urged MPs to prioritise the programme during budget discussions, saying adequate funding would be necessary if government is to expand the initiative to the entire country while meeting its obligations to workers already recruited.

He also warned that inadequate funding of government programmes could create a situation where Parliament approves policies and taxes without sufficient scrutiny of how the resulting resources would be used.