Strikes expose gap between Kenyan poor and the rich

By Standard Team

Across the country the sick lay on benches or near empty wards, groaning in pain, abandoned by the Government and doctors.

Many more suffered silently at home, grappling with pain, but could not reach hospitals because there is none functioning, except the pocket-drilling private institutions, most of which exist solely for profit. At home their children loitered around, unsure of what the future holds because the primary and secondary school teachers, or lecturers in the case of universities have abandoned them.

Then when they thought the protracted Government negotiations with trade unions are about to bear fruits and set them free from neglect, the Government drops the bombshell: It is broke and the talks may just have been a tactic to buy time.

That was the state of the country’s public schools, universities, and hospitals yesterday.

But flipping the coin the other way, one finds the private schools, universities, and hospitals, which are the preserve of the endowed class thriving. Their sick are getting treatment in private hospitals, and their children are learning uninterrupted in private schools and universities.

In Kisumu, for example, patients waited for over hours unassisted. Julia Anyango, 29, a patient at the maternity ward grappling with labour pains, could not find a doctor to attend to her at about midday. She had been on the queue for over eight hours.

This completes the state of affairs in Kenya, which over the past two weeks has turned two nations in one – one for the poor where life is at a standstill, and another for the rich, where life goes on as if nothing has happened.

So grave is the situation that when yesterday the Cabinet sub-committee set up to address the issue of strikes, proposed that exams due in November be postponed, some asked if private institutions could as well have their own.

Why? Again because of the fact that there are two nations in one, at war with each other and with contradicting priorities and fortunes, or is it misfortunes?

unsettling

But even more unsettling was the fact that the proposal means next year’s school and university calendars could be disrupted, including new admissions.

As families took their groaning relatives away from the wards, either to home or to private facilities certain to destroy their lifesavings if not their daily meagre earnings, the rest of Kenya pulled on as if there was nothing the matter. 

The grimmer challenge gripped the education sector after Finance Minister Njeru Githae curtly announced salary increment sought by teachers would not be met unless the taxpayer is made to shoulder an additional 30 per cent income tax.

Teachers are demanding 300 per cent pay rise but Githae insists that taxes will either have to be increased or money be diverted from all other development project to pay teachers.

“Under the new Constitution, the Minister for Finance cannot withdraw any money from the Consolidated Fund without parliamentary approval and no money was factored in the budget for additional teachers salaries,” said Githae.

In Mombasa, unconfirmed reports indicated two patients died on Tuesday, as they lay unattended at the health facility. Hospital chief administrator David Mwangi denied reports patients had died due to neglect, but admitted the institution was operating at low capacity “because there are a few doctors on duty”.

He also admitted that patients had returned home without treatment due to the shortage of doctors at the Coast General Hospital.

In Nairobi, angry doctors took to the streets under tight police security demanding resignation of Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o and the implementation of the Musyimi Task Force report on improvement of medical facilities, recruitment of more doctors, and payment of emergency call allowances.

Doctors have vowed it would not be business as usual until the Government addresses all their concerns.

“The registrars have been on strike for 21 days and the doctors for seven days. We have not been engaged in any dialogue. We are not just asking for monetary increment; we want is better healthcare for all Kenyans. Nyong’o needs to resign from the health docket,” said Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union secretary general Dr Were Onyino.

They complained Nyong’o and other leaders go abroad for superior treatment, while ordinary Kenyans get poor health care in hospitals that have inadequate facilities.

In Nakuru, critically ill patients at the Rift Valley Provincial Hospital were forced to seek medication elsewhere as the strike continued.  The situation was the same in all district hospitals in Nakuru, Kericho, and Narok counties. 

A survey by The Standard team established that nurses and clinicians were the ones left to run hospitals.

Patients continued flocking to the Kakamega Provincial, as well as Vihiga, Teso, and Busia District hospitals, but most were turned away. 

Francis Odira, Medical Superintendent at Vihiga District Hospital, said the situation was unpleasant because most doctors had stayed away.

Patient traffic at the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital continued to decline.

At Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi and the Kenyatta National Hospital, little activity was going on as most doctors were on strike.

Somewhere in the Kenyan capital Githae declared he was ready to be sacrificed, condemned or even abused, but would not rescind his decision not to pay teachers, claiming this was in the interest of all Kenyans, the economy, and the country.