MP proves the age of quacks is here with us
Kenya has finally ascended to the pinnacle of quackery, where every passing mountebank can ascend to the highest office. ILLUSTRATION | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- We have accepted and entrenched a culture of anything goes, in which you can do anything and get away with it.
- As long as we tolerate such obvious conmanship, we must not pretend to aspire to any higher ideal than bare survival.
Last week, in a local daily, Kenyans were treated to yet another ‘inspiring’ story of a legislator living with disability who allegedly overcame all odds to go to ‘medical school’ and become a ‘surgeon’ and who eventually got nominated to Parliament.
Over the past few years, this particular legislator has given many interviews in which he claims to have medical qualifications.
He also says he was a surgeon at a hospital. Many have believed the man and he is widely referred to as ‘daktari’, the Kiswahili honorific for a doctor.
Those of us who are registered medical and dental practitioners in Kenya have long known that the man is not a doctor of any stripe, and we have on numerous occasions tried to correct media houses that run with these misleading stories.
As a result of this, when the latest story was published, we thought it was just lazy journalism.
ATTITUDE
However, on checking this legislator’s profile on the National Assembly website, it was clearly indicated that he studied for a “Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery” degree at the University of Nairobi.
While such a degree is obviously non-existent in this country, it comes close enough to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree offered by medical schools.
Why would such a high-profile Kenyan persist in misrepresenting himself so? The answer to this question is emblematic of a quintessentially Kenyan attitude; because he can.
Indeed, when it was pointed out on social media that the legislator was not a medical doctor, many commentators initially argued that he had definitely been to medical school, and eventually wondered why this misrepresentation was such a big deal yet he was not treating patients.
They considered it a harmless prank. The MP is a hero to many, despite his obvious deception, and should anyone initiate moves to strip him of his State Office for openly flouting Chapter Six of the Constitution, he will have multitudes of supporters who will explain his malfeasances away.
TOXIC CULTURE
Anyone going down the path of justice will be considered his political enemy and be dismissed as being jealous of his success.
All this will be tolerated because we have accepted and entrenched a culture of anything goes, in which you can do anything and get away with it.
Indeed, the more brazen one is, the more powerful he is considered to be. Integrity means nothing to us, and charlatanry is the order of the day in most of our enterprises.
Experts are dismissed with contempt, and ‘miracle workers’ are glorified.
This nominated legislator is the clearest demonstration yet that Kenya has finally ascended to the pinnacle of quackery, where every passing mountebank can ascend to the highest office.
As long as we tolerate such obvious conmanship, we must not pretend to aspire to any higher ideal than bare survival.
Lukoye Atwoli is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]
