Why Health ministry reigns supreme in corruption
What you need to know:
- Over the years, despite changes in Kenya's governance structures, the Ministry of Health reigns supreme in corruption because the people of this country do not really care much about their own health.
- In many cases, we leave it to an uncaring deity who is happy to receive us upon our death and usher us into eternal bliss.
Several decades ago, Kenyans who had had contact with the Ministry of Health christened the ministry headquarters “Mafya House”, in a play on the actual name of the building, Afya House. The connotation that the place was the domicile of a most vicious criminal gang was not an exaggeration, given the nefarious activities that were initiated and executed in that building. Functionaries at that building had perfected methods of frustrating health workers seeking promotions and payment of their dues to such an extent that many had to give up unless they had money to pay kickbacks.
The tradition of disappearing files was hatched and perfected in that wretched building and it was only the intervention of a bribe or a higher authority that suddenly cleared the clerk’s eyes and revealed the file whereabouts to him. The building was filled with brokers in dark dingy corridors, offering to assist anyone with a problem for a reasonable fee. In the offices, responsible officers would leave their jackets on seatbacks and stroll to the city to run their personal businesses, only returning in the evening to collect their belongings and head home.
Reforms instituted after defeat of the Kanu kleptocracy in 2002 improved the façade of the place and removed most of the corridor brokers, creating an appearance of order. Unfortunately, the "Mafya" simply went in two directions. The petty brokers moved underground, using modern technology to continue with their schemes, while the real fat cats moved their business into higher echelons, dealing only with the top honchos at the ministry or even in other offices outside the ministry.
UNITED STATES
Many of us with connections to the health sector were therefore not surprised by the recent moves by the United States Aid agency to suspend government support over serious audit queries. Before this, internal audits revealed financial malpractices that put at risk billions of shillings in public funds. While the standard refrain from official sources is that no money was lost, it is obvious to the most casual observer that billions of shillings have been pilfered over the past few years.
A visible monument to the gross fraud, waste and abuse in the ministry is to be found at the National Youth Service yard in Miritini, Mombasa. Ninety-nine containers have been lying there for the past year after having been allegedly imported to serve in the counties as mobile clinics. The tragic thing is that none of the counties remembers requesting the national government to purchase the containers!
A similar scandal appears to have been hatched when diagnostic equipment was purchased or leased on behalf of the counties under the guidance of the Ministry of Health. In a few counties the equipment has been put to good use and is serving wananchi. However, in the majority of counties, the equipment still lies in stores for lack of health workers with the technical expertise to operate them. This continues even as we are assured that the government is still servicing the financing facility that enabled the acquisition of the equipment.
PERSONAL PROJECTS
It is unconscionable that for a long time politicians and senior public servants have used the Ministry of Health as a cash cow to finance their personal projects at public expense. Unfortunately it would appear that this behaviour mirrors the attitudes of the vast majority of our people. Over the years, despite changes in Kenya's governance structures, the Ministry of Health reigns supreme in corruption because the people of this country do not really care much about their own health. In many cases, we leave it to an uncaring deity who is happy to receive us upon our death and usher us into eternal bliss.
It is my contention that as long as the lives of Kenyans are considered cheap by Kenyans themselves, as long as life and death is left to chance and the fates, as long as we raise our tribal chieftains above our own welfare, corruption shall continue at “Mafya House", and we shall all be the worse for it.
Lukoye Atwoli is associate professor and dean, Moi University School of Medicine.
