Reflect on Kenyan values this Jamhuri Day

Samburu dance group performs at Nyayo National Stadium on December 12, 2015 during Jamhuri Day. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The troubling thing is how the various actors have handled this industrial unrest in the health sector.
  • However, most of them also insist on their right to join and participate in union activities including picketing and going on strike.

Tomorrow marks 53 years since we gained independence and, as is customary, we shall have celebrations around the country as the semi-official start of our festive season.

As we celebrate, there are very serious issues we must ponder as a nation, and agree whether we want to continue as we are or if we need to change and pursue a different direction.

For the whole of last week, the health sector has been in turmoil.

Kenyan doctors in the public sector started their strike after the expiry of the 21-day notice issued to the government.

This followed three years of pushing to have a collective bargaining agreement implemented to improve the working conditions and remuneration for doctors.

Other health workers have followed suit in rapid succession and, by the end of the week, other civil servants were threatening to shut down government services if an agreement was not reached with the health workers.

The troubling thing is how the various actors have handled this industrial unrest in the health sector.

After notices are issued, the stock government response is to ignore them, and when it appears inevitable that a strike will happen, they fall back on the appeal to the Hippocratic Oath and humanitarianism.

It is only after the strike begins that government goes to press to try and demonise the striking workers as heartless and uncaring.

The resulting back and forth inevitably causes a lot of suffering and even deaths among our people.

PREVENT STRIKE
To me, this stance betrays a fatally uncaring attitude on the part of decision-makers in government.

At no time must we reduce our people’s mortality and morbidity to mere statistics aimed at making a point about how we feel about health workers.

In my view, this lack of respect for human life in our country is at the heart of what I perceive as the problem with Kenya.

As we mark our Jamhuri Day, we must, in my opinion, reflect about this reckless disregard for human life that threatens the very fabric of our Republic.

We must acknowledge that we have built our nationhood on shaky foundations, and we continue to add to the noxious aura with every passing event at national and lower levels.

Are we content to project ourselves as a callous society that can sit and watch people die in order to make our point?

Many people have accused health workers of being the reckless party for calling a strike in total violation of the oath they are supposed to have taken.

It is obviously lost on these commentators that it is the responsibility of elected governments to ensure that the population’s health is protected and maintained.

The overarching statement is that health workers offer essential services and should never strike.

It might surprise many that health workers actually agree that they should never ever go on strike.

However, most of them also insist on their right to join and participate in union activities including picketing and going on strike.

This sounds like a contradiction, but it is not.

The basic argument is that while health workers should be able to participate in union activities, their employers should never “allow” them to go on strike.

ONENESS

This means that whenever these health workers issue a strike notice, their employers must address their grievances in a timely manner in order to ensure that the strike never materialises.

That, to me, would be the clearest demonstration of high regard for human health and life.

The primary responsibility-holder for Kenyans’ right to health as enshrined in our Constitution is the government, elected by the people to implement this right, among others.

This responsibility cannot be farmed out to individuals.

The government must set up mechanisms to forestall any disruption of service in the sector by addressing grievances in a timely manner.

However, all this would be pointless if we are not agreed that an important value of Kenyanness is the abiding respect for human life.

One hopes the leadership of our Republic will reflect upon this during the national celebrations tomorrow.

Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]