IN KENYA THE HEALTH DOCKET IS NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH

In a few weeks the political dust will finally settle. Our candidate of choice elected by the majority will assume power or leadership-whichever way s/he perceives it. To the rest of us we will again be jolted to living our choice.



This sadly to most of us is usually a painstaking reality check. We are alone and in the dark. It dawns on us that the political bigotry, seduction by petty political sycophancy will not fix our woes. Our problems remain more common and our ambitions as Kenyans wipe off the mist to a clarity that we have more in common than we dare to notice.

I must start by apologizing concerning the curt language, straight to point approach and less than perfect semantics of this letter. This is because; I am actually rushing back to work. This line- healthcare- boasts of a lopsided personnel/patient ratio that every second is  a matter of life and death, quite literary trust me.

I hope this finds you well, if not, then you are not alone. Millions of Kenyans are in that situation too. Multitudes of your fellow countrymen will not find a doctor today if they need one. They might be made to wait a bit longer. Did I say a bit? Well if six months is a bit, then that’s what I mean. You see, as you might know, there are just about 2000 doctors in public service with a deficit of over 30,000 nurses to give a hand. That’s exactly why they have to wait a bit. Cool?

While all dust and hubris has been raised about other sectors, in this election, we have to make healthcare a campaign issue. The bleak situation impels that we do justice to this sector.

Kenya was ranked as the worst place to be born, everyone is lucky to survive beyond 50 years of age. Out every 1000 children born 55 families will have a funeral before the year runs out. We record one of the highest maternal mortalities. About 360 women out of every 100,000 carrying a happy pregnancy will die at giving birth. Yet we thought pregnancy is not a disease. In Kenya, it is. In fact worse than the other ailments which do not strike you lifeless after just a 9 months innocent sojourn?

For  of every 10,000 Kenyans a single doctor will stand between them and dying. Since a doctor can only attend to one, make your own statistic and inference. All I will tell you is that it is scary.

How then, is it that we can still afford to relegate this area of concern? That we can yet again afford not to appoint a professional at the helm of the Health docket. For justice and constitutional affairs docket a lawyer must be in place, for all the road works and ilk an engineer must be in charge. Alas, for healthcare we look for the most flimsy reasons to rewards close friends( and relatives).

Do we wonder then why the statistics give us negative shares? Are we surprised then that our most significant challenges in the sector remain largely unmet?

Have you thought that maybe if we did get the right man for the job, qualified and experienced then maybe the job would get done? I think so.

 Then again, these are just my thoughts. Not so important.