Reign of charlatans with sociopathic tendencies
Ronald Kiprotich Melly (right), a fake medical superintendent at Meteitei Sub-County Hospital in Nandi County, before Kibera Law Courts on November 22, 2016. He is a quack who pretended to be a doctor. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The medical profession is a potent magnet for imposters, given the apparent prestige and presumed wealth to be made in this field.
- Every top performing student in primary and secondary school is likely to express the wish to become a doctor or other health worker.
Last week, the medical profession heaved a collective sigh of relief after a charlatan in Nandi County was finally arrested and arraigned in court.
Obviously, though, we celebrated too soon!
Over the weekend, the fellow was released on bond and travelled back to his village where, according to newspaper reports, he was received as a hero and dressed in celebratory garlands signifying great achievement in the community.
His contemporaries were pictured carrying placards urging that he runs for a seat on the county assembly in next year’s General Election.
They feted him and generally made a fuss customarily associated with great achievers in the community even though they knew all about his atrocious behaviour.
Another newspaper report indicated that the local county assembly conducted an in-depth investigation of this case, including summoning the county health leadership, and reviewing the quack’s performance over time.
In their wisdom, but more probably the lack of it, the county assembly concluded that the quack was, in fact, a very good clinician who should be given additional skills in a medical school in order to continue serving his people!
The county assembly was satisfied that in his brief masquerade in the health sector, he had outperformed many qualified professionals, concluding that he displayed rare skill in his work and perhaps only needs fine-tuning to become a world-famous clinician.
FAKE MEDICS
A sadistic regulator of medical practice would be constrained to agree with the county assembly.
The man comes from that county, worked in the county and treated mostly his own relatives in the county.
One could argue that if, as the Swahili saying goes, a child asks for a razor blade he should not be denied the opportunity to cut himself and learn the necessary lessons.
Fortunately the medical profession is a lot more humane than that.
The medical profession is a potent magnet for imposters, given the apparent prestige and presumed wealth to be made in this field.
It doesn’t matter that both the prestige and the earnings in the health sector have plummeted precipitously over time as evidenced by the nationwide strike scheduled to begin tomorrow by the doctors’ union.
Every top performing student in primary and secondary school is likely to express the wish to become a doctor or other health worker.
GLOBAL REBELLION
A quack, such as this one in Nandi County, would find it very easy to put in a white coat and show up in hospital corridors to fleece unsuspecting members of the public.
It is a testimony of the state capture by thugs and quacks that the common citizen idolizes a killer quack and denigrates the trained health professional.
We are okay with the quack, even if a few of our relatives die in his hands.
After all, we know he is not a trained doctor, so some of those who go to see him will likely die!
It would only be bad if a patient died under the care of a trained medic!
This kind of reasoning is worrisome, and confirms the argument I made last week that we have little respect for human life.
We are happy to sacrifice a few of our fellow human beings in pursuit of some obscure goal that sometimes manifests as political aspiration, and at others as ethnic or cultural grandstanding.
Perhaps this regression towards quackery is not a uniquely Kenyan thing.
An argument has been made that all over the world there is a revolt against the intellectuals in favour of the so-called common man.
People are reportedly getting tired of being told what to do by the know-it-all intellectual types who actually conduct the research and test the hypotheses.
Citizens in the US and in parts of Europe are catching up with us in making political decisions based mostly on (misguided) gut feeling rather than any rational examination of the facts.
Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]
