By D S(KENYA TODAY MARCH 9th 2017)
“Yours is a calling….to serve and protect all…..my government wants to have the very best conditions for your patients…(and) bring world class health care to Kenya…..(but) we still remain a developing country with a long way to go. We are not going to be able to achieve what you want overnight.(Said President Uhuru)
Right now it seems to me that the doctors should pay attention to our national circumstance and it seems to me that they should remember the higher duty to protect life. It seems to me that it would be wise for them to be guided by patience and practicality.”
The foregoing is a seemingly sober and unassailable take on the role of doctors in society — from the same man who pleadingly asked the same society what it wanted him to do regarding corruption!
It is also a schizophrenic take on a country that is at once “rising” towards Vision 2030 and “doesn’t need the west” and simultaneously “remains a developing country with a long way to go”: A country that has no qualms sorting out” those agitating for compensation that is commensurate with their skills and contributions.
The lofty speechifying and threats aside, let’s compare Mr. Kenyatta’s glowing and polished rhetoric with the reality of his policy proposals and leadership:
Sandles International Ltd., a company associated with Mr. Kenyatta’s own sister Nyokabi Muthama and his cousin Kathleen Kihanya has been implicated in the siphoning off of billions from the Ministry of Health.
The President’s wife and First Lady Ms. Margaret Kenyatta recently cancelled the Beyond Zero Marathon because in her own words, she’s “never been willing to politicize this (Beyond Zero Campaign’s) agenda”. I am not quite sure what the hitherto-irreproachable First Lady meant by her unwillingness to politicize the campaign. However, one can draw a line from Mr. & Mrs. Kenyatta to Nyokabi/Kihanya to Beyond Zero and Sandles International to the missing billions at the Ministry of Health and a sector in crisis.
Against this backdrop, FLOK’s decision to lay low is understandable.
Equally ironic, hypocritical and utterly lacking in practicality is the fact that Mr. Kenyatta presides over a country with the world’s best-compensated legislature; whose government allocated KSh.15.3Billion for its laptops-in-elementary-school campaign promise for students, some have their classes under trees!
Sandles International Ltd., a company associated with Mr. Kenyatta’s own sister Nyokabi Muthama and his cousin Kathleen Kihanya has been implicated in the siphoning off of billions from the Ministry of Health.
The President’s wife and First Lady Ms. Margaret Kenyatta recently cancelled the Beyond Zero Marathon because in her own words, she’s “never been willing to politicize this (Beyond Zero Campaign’s) agenda”. I am not quite sure what the hitherto-irreproachable First Lady meant by her unwillingness to politicize the campaign. However, one can draw a line from Mr. & Mrs. Kenyatta to Nyokabi/Kihanya to Beyond Zero and Sandles International to the missing billions at the Ministry of Health and a sector in crisis.
Against this backdrop, FLOK’s decision to lay low is understandable.
Equally ironic, hypocritical and utterly lacking in practicality is the fact that Mr. Kenyatta presides over a country with the world’s best-compensated legislature; whose government allocated KSh.15.3Billion for its laptops-in-elementary-school campaign promise for students, some have their classes under trees!
Mr. Kenyatta has presided over the most corrupt government in Kenya’s history. The numbers are simply staggering. His call to the doctors to “pay attention to the national circumstances” rings hollow and imbecilic when lined up alongside the waste and plunder that has happened under his watch.
The foregoing, regardless of the mechanics and details of the collective bargain agreement (CBA) between the government and the doctor’s union, is beyond infuriating.
They also point to a president whose person AND government harbor warped priorities and is utterly deceitful.
The foregoing, regardless of the mechanics and details of the collective bargain agreement (CBA) between the government and the doctor’s union, is beyond infuriating.
They also point to a president whose person AND government harbor warped priorities and is utterly deceitful.
Psychology 101:
American psychologist Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs or requirements for the psychological health of humans. The hierarchy was predicated on fulfilling their innate needs — culminating in self-actualization.
Called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it posited that humans strived to fulfill their physical needs before aspiring towards their (abstract and higher) “calling”. Obviously, some attain that heightened state of consciousness much quicker than others – regardless of the (physical) obstacles and circumstances but in general, most want to fulfill their physiological and safety first before serving others as a sense of fulfillment.
The Amherst-educated fifth president of Kenya and the ruling Jubilee Coalition have failed to meet the basic needs of Kenyans.
The failure is even more stark when one compares Kenya to some of its neighbors including Rwanda and Ethiopia; two countries that have endured significant civil strife since their independence from France and Italy respectively. These two countries have more beds/1000 patients than Kenya i.e. more hospitals.
American psychologist Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs or requirements for the psychological health of humans. The hierarchy was predicated on fulfilling their innate needs — culminating in self-actualization.
Called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it posited that humans strived to fulfill their physical needs before aspiring towards their (abstract and higher) “calling”. Obviously, some attain that heightened state of consciousness much quicker than others – regardless of the (physical) obstacles and circumstances but in general, most want to fulfill their physiological and safety first before serving others as a sense of fulfillment.
The Amherst-educated fifth president of Kenya and the ruling Jubilee Coalition have failed to meet the basic needs of Kenyans.
The failure is even more stark when one compares Kenya to some of its neighbors including Rwanda and Ethiopia; two countries that have endured significant civil strife since their independence from France and Italy respectively. These two countries have more beds/1000 patients than Kenya i.e. more hospitals.
While the absolute values favor Kenya, both Rwanda and Uganda spend a higher % of their GDP towards healthcare expenditure.
Contrastingly, Kenyans see the country’s rich and powerful jetting off to South Africa, India or England for treatment even as its leaders seek recruitments “across borders” just as it did food from a country that is a desert and one-seventh its size and a population that is one-eighth!
They see helicopters and fuel guzzlers turning the grounds of Hirigi into part heli-pad part parking lot for the funeral of one of the lucky ones who had the option of flying abroad for treatment.
No Mr. President, you are the one who must think that “sisi ni wajinga” and come August 2017, our votes itakuonyesha who the real wajinga are!
Contrastingly, Kenyans see the country’s rich and powerful jetting off to South Africa, India or England for treatment even as its leaders seek recruitments “across borders” just as it did food from a country that is a desert and one-seventh its size and a population that is one-eighth!
They see helicopters and fuel guzzlers turning the grounds of Hirigi into part heli-pad part parking lot for the funeral of one of the lucky ones who had the option of flying abroad for treatment.
No Mr. President, you are the one who must think that “sisi ni wajinga” and come August 2017, our votes itakuonyesha who the real wajinga are!
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