Public health is crying out for Uhuru’s leadership

Patients in Kabarnet County Referral Hospital in Baringo on December 5, 2016 remain untreated as strike persists. My Uhuru Kenyatta has not prioritised their grievances. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • It also portrays the President as uncaring and insensitive to the plight of the majority of Kenyans who go to the public hospitals.
  • And there is something wrong about putting the hunt for the Luhya vote, the Kalenjin vote or any other vote above public health.

Early media reports of the health workers’ strike put the death toll in public hospitals arising from the industrial action at between seven and eight on the first day alone.

It’s rather obvious that the figure was grossly understated.

News of the deaths was most probably gathered from the few major public hospitals in urban areas or the bereaved family members who spoke to the media.

We all know that even on a normal day, a much higher number of patients die in the public hospitals where the Kenyan poor seek medical care and services are worse than bad.

An honest audit of the strike on its 13th day today will in future mark it out as one of the worst moments of human suffering in the country’s recent history.

Imagine the fate of the expectant woman in the village who arrives at the local dispensary with birth complications and the best help she can get is from a sympathetic watchman; the accident victim dumped on the cold floors of the referral hospital’s casualty and emergency wing; the comatose patient hooked to life support at the ICU; or the many sick Kenyans who would have chosen to endure the pain at home.

But it isn’t just the under-reporting and the fact that there is no public outrage that are worrying about the health workers’ strike.

The official indifference amid the public suffering, as the media shift their focus from the human suffering in the hospitals to the sterile press briefings, is unprecedented.

Strangely, the paralysis of the country’s public health services hasn’t been considered a serious enough issue to warrant a change on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s diary.

It has been politics as usual these past two weeks, with Mr Kenyatta making extensive tours of the Rift Valley and Western to “launch and inspect development projects” and “issue title deeds”.

MISPLACED PRIORITY

Of course, the President’s handlers are keen to have him go out and shore up his second term bid in the elections only eight months away.

They might even add that the President has actually instructed his Health Cabinet Secretary, Dr Cleopa Mailu, and the Council of Governors to deal with the health workers.

Yet Dr Mailu, who managed the premier hospital for the rich before his appointment to the Cabinet, has hardly done enough to inspire confidence that he can fix the public health system.

The fat governors flanking him at the negotiations haven’t helped either.

The absence of Mr Kenyatta’s personal leadership has therefore not been without consequences.

For one, it has seen the standoff between the government and the unions drag longer than it should have.

It also portrays the President as uncaring and insensitive to the plight of the majority of Kenyans who go to the public hospitals.

And there is something wrong about putting the hunt for the Luhya vote, the Kalenjin vote or any other vote above public health.