For 50 long years Kenya’s health sector has been
struggling along nearing death. For 50 years Kenya’s Ministry of Health has had
all sorts of political appointees as Ministers all of whom save Prof. Sam
Ongeri were lacking the necessary background in the health service.
Barely one month into the new dispensation and the
Jubilee government makes a political appointment that is simply a throwback to
the 1980s when Ministers barely needed ANY qualifications to head a particular
ministry. Some were not even educated.
I am sure James Macharia is an excellent banker and his
qualifications in the finance sector leave you wondering why the horse trading
that goes on politically could not find a better appointment for someone with
such great qualifications for Finance. Here is what really happened – Jubilee
had to come to an agreement on which party gets the finance docket,
qualifications of the appointee notwithstanding. Poor James Macharia, having
been promised an appointment nonetheless gets the health docket as a
compromise.
There is nothing more evil then the ridiculous way in
which our lives are compromised by politicians. Lest we forget the promises
made only 3 months ago as concerns cabinet secretaries and the provisions of
the constitution that those appointees should indeed be adequately suited to
that particular post.
It was part of their political campaign pledge to Kenyans
that the Jubilee government would take such appointments seriously enough to
nominate the appropriately qualified persons to the right dockets. It’s also a
part of the constitutional requirements that these people are aptly suited to
the ministries they head.
So when a political compromise is reached, to the
detriment of an entire sector it is the rankest and vilest propaganda to then
have minions declare that doctors are not the only ones capable of running the
health ministry when those doctors rightly raised alarm.
To claim that administration of the health sector is
something anyone can do is utter gibberish. 50 years of letting anyone run the
health sector has resulted in deplorable conditions and only a miserable 2300
government doctors available for 40 million people!
Look at the madness of an argument that in one instance
declares that anyone can do the job not necessarily a doctor and in the same
vein acknowledges that there would indeed be great need for consultancy with
doctors! Its utter nonsense to justify putting a person as head of a ministry
when he is so incapable of functioning that he would automatically require a
host of the very doctors you refuse to head the ministry.
It’s a common fallacy by the way, that made the rounds on
social media this week that Michuki was not a transporter but was able to fix
the transport industry. Firstly Michuki was indeed a transporter having vast
interests in the transport industry; secondly and more importantly health
sector deals with people and not vehicles. Thirdly, what was fixed?
Even the notion of comparing Kenya with a first world
nation like Germany to justify not appointing an appropriately qualified doctor
displays the level of ridiculous excuses. Kenya is in no way anything like
Germany, Kenya’s health sector is not only grossly mismanaged it is
ridiculously underfunded. If we are to compare how Kenya’s health sector is run
verses Germany’s then we would at the very least pay our medics a comparable
salary and give them comparable resources and working conditions.
It is an international practice not to appoint as head
the very medic that would be appropriate for such a job and the increasing
reality is that those heads are not as competent in handling the sector as a
medic would be resulting in a nation like the US having failures in its
healthcare sector despite having the resources available. This is true in the
reality that unless you have the right kind of insurance you will not receive
medical attention in the US. Indeed the US is way behind even Cuba in terms of
public health service.
A reasonable mind would instead compare Kenya’s failing
health sector with a successful one like Singapore’s. Incidentally, the health
minister is a doctor! Why Singapore? 50 years ago, Singapore and Kenya were at
the same level in independence, political transition and development. Isn’t it
just common sense to look at what they have been able to achieve and how they
achieved it?
Of all the myriad excuses made this week, the most
ridiculous has to be that doctors are not managers and running a ministry is
not about treating patients. Firstly, doctors are indeed managers; they are
managers of healthcare, of systems and of policies. Senior professionals have
more than an MD they also have MBAs and further education tailor-made to suit
the management of a healthcare organization. It is very insulting to insinuate
that of all the brilliant minds in this country there was not one that was
found suitable for the job.
Our healthcare sector needs a radical and drastic change
immediately and there is nothing radical in appointing a non medic and yet for
50 years that is what has been going on with the results that we have today.
There is no real justification for the Jubilee government to usurp their own
pledges and the foundations of the constitution in making clearly inappropriate
appointments.
As for those who argue that management of an entire
health sector can be done by anybody so long as the person has the doctors to
help him run the show – this circular reasoning is why stupid had a head start
in Kenya and is winning the race.
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