No need to hide leaders’ health status

Who else can give an accurate account of the state of the health of the Prime Minister other than his wife, Ida?

When the Nation asked her the question on Tuesday, she gave an assurance that Mr Odinga was recuperating “very well’’ at the Nairobi Hospital. “He is doing well. It was just exhaustion. The Press will be fully briefed in the course of the day,” she said on the phone. But is there anything wrong with discussing a leader’s health?

Guarded secret

Indeed, most leaders, especially those from Africa, “never fall ill” and their health is a closely guarded secret. However, this is not just an African phenomenon. The health of Israeli leaders can never be a subject of discussion. And the health of French presidents often become a state secret even though most promise transparency when they take office.

For example, the news that streamed in when Nicolas Sarkozy was rushed to hospital after suffering a nerve attack got the French thinking about the secrets kept by past leaders. So when news trickled into newsrooms on Tuesday that Prime Minister Raila Odinga had been admitted to the Nairobi Hospital for fatigue, the question about dignitaries’ health emerged.

During Mr Daniel Moi’s tenure as president, few would know when he was ill. But as retired president, the media was fully updated whenever he was admitted to hospital. The media similarly remained fully briefed when the head of the public service, Mr Francis Muthaura, was admitted to hospital in late June last year.

The Post Online reports that most African leaders not only hide their health status, but even in death remain as mysterious as they were alive.“In some you see the telltale signs of lunacy, and sometimes terminal illness, but they cannot be subjected to tests. You only get to know that they had heart or liver problems, a pounding headache, or an ‘athletic’ tummy after they ‘leave’ office.”

However, when President Kibaki was admitted to the Nairobi Hospital in 2003, an announcement was made. Psychologist Frank Njenga says different policies apply in different countries. “In mature democracies like the US or Switzerland, the threat is limited. That is why the health of their presidents can freely be discussed in the media,” he said.

He says once a country’s democracy matures, some of these issues will no longer be secret. That perhaps explains why in the US for instance, health reports of public figures are discussed publicly. President Barack Obama’s latest health report shows that he has not kicked the smoking habit, takes anti-inflammatory medication to relieve chronic tendonitis in his left knee, and is eating better to lower his cholesterol.

The White House physician, Navy Capt Jeffrey Kuhlman, is reported to have said that President Obama should stick with “smoking cessation efforts” using nicotine gum. Consulting psychologist, Dr Gladys Mwiti, observed that psychologically, people feel safer when they run around with the imagination that their leaders are larger than life.

“It is not just leaders, but people we admire, those who live lives for us, those we have made into icons. Who will tell them their leaders are ill? Can leaders get ill? Are our icons allowed to be human?” she asks. In February this year, former US president Bill Clinton was taken to a New York hospital with a heart complaint and underwent heart bypass operation in 2004.

The media reported the incident, saying the former president had a hectic schedule in January, coordinating US aid to quake-hit Haiti. His wife was said to be in a meeting with President Obama at the time before she rushed to his side.

“If we realise that they are mortal just like us, we shall care for them, love them, and protect them from stresses that finally do them in. “This way, they will live healthier and longer among us, and when they are ill, we shall be told and we shall not be sad or fall ill ourselves, but accept it,” Dr Mwiti says.