Photo credit:Veronicadana.
Upon seizing the reigns of power. The
power to be autonomous from the
colonial dictation, Kenya's founding fathers declared a war. A war with three enemies; poverty, ignorance and dieases. Indeed those three summed up the genesis of our multifaceted stifles.
Major strides have been made since independence. Access to basic education has been made easier to millions who would have other wise languished in ignorance. The question of whether the education has fundamentally changed the fortunes of Kenyans is a story of another day.
According to the World Bank, the international poverty line is $2.15 per person per day. This means anyone earning less than $2.15 (ksh 300) per day is considered as poor. 16.1% of Kenya's population lives below that poverty line. 16.1% translates to a whooping 8million Kenyans who are live in abject poverty. Wikipedia refers to Kenya's poverty situation as severe. Where do you fall? Are you poor?Again the explanation for the teething poverty is a complex and can only fit in a another write-up. So we leave it at that.
The backbone of a thriving economy is robust health systems. They say a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Poverty and poor health care system are very much intertwined hence need to be dealt with holistically. Despite the promising statistics in health care sector,we still have a long way to go as country in achieving quality and sustainable health for all. Before the decentralization of services, healthcare was under the national government. After the promulgation of the new constitution in 2010, the baton was passed to the devolved units. The counties have now controlled the health care sector for ten years.Notable achievements have been made in arguably every county but again mortality rate is still high.
As of 2022, Kenya's death rate stood at 7.8 per 1000 persons. Death is a painful experience that no one wants to associate with although it remains inevitable. At one point, all of us will kiss this beautiful earth goodbye. But it's also a fact that some of the deaths are premature and unwarranted.They are avoidable. They are avoidable if we practice effective health care and ensure primary prevention interventions (like immunisations drives). Unfortunately for our country, we are still painfully condoning avoidable deaths.
Harrowing tales of agony from our public health facilities continue to ravage many vulnerable households. Personally I have been a secondary victim of poor state of our hospitals. Scores have lost their lives. Lives which have been cut short due to reasons we can realistically do away with.
Unfortunate loss of lives and incapacitation of other casualties in our Kenyan hospitals has been occasioned by lack of capacity due to slow recruitment of health workers, limited health insurance coverage by NHIF and lack of adequate medical infrastructure. Take for instance, Port Victoria sub District Hospital and Mukhobola health center in Bunyala Subcounty, are just shells! They cannot handle serious medical emergencies leaving locals to resort to Siaya which is no better. In the process of saving lives, most are lost. These problems have been outstanding for ages and if they are not addressed, nature will continue to take its course. But who is responsible in arresting this menace?
Provision of quality medical care is actually enshrined in the Kenyan constitution. The constitution dictates that every citizen has a right to life. The government has responsiblity to protect lives. Protection of lives can be through preventing their loss at all costs. Is the government doing enough to uphold this right? Of course not. Our public hospitals (the new death dens) are in a pathetic state.
It's easy to blame it on the government of the day but let's be realistic, Kenya is not a monarch. The government cannot install itself. It's us who bestow those individuals with reigns of power to run the government on our behalf and as such we ought to hold them accountable for their actions if things go astray. Based on this argument, anything that goes south in any sphere of governance ought to be blamed on the electorate and not the custodians of sovereign power!
There have been cries all over because of the poor condition of our hospitals due to mismanagement and poor leadership of those in charge. Hospitals have lacked basic equipment despite the huge revenue the taxman collects. Ironically, we continue to keep those poor managers in charge and continue crying foul. Those are stupid tears that do not deserve sympathy!
I believe we have enough resources to arrest the crisis in our public hospitals. It's just a matter of priorities. It doesn't make sense for us to have a bloated government structure with mind-blowing wages and yet we cannot provide basic drugs in our hospitals.
No amount of tears will change the status quo. We have a role to play and holding our leaders accountable is the only way we will assuage the situation.
Whether we can actually hold this leaders accountable is a question for another day.
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