On December 5th 2016 all public health doctors in Kenya downed their tools. All public hospitals were closed. With time all medical schools closed. The industrial action is in its 35th day. Members of the public were asked to urge their political leaders to come to their senses listen to doctors who have the health of Kenyans as a priority.
The dark side to such an industrial action is the temporary loss of health service to majority of Kenyans who rely on public health facilities. The doctors highly regret this but it is obvious where the blame lies – on the Kenya government.
On the bright side this has given birth to a new era of politics. This is the era I call ERA of AGENDA POLITICS. Agenda politics will define politics from now on. What do I mean by this?
For the last 53 years the politics of Kenya has been mainly driven by ethnic misdirection by politicians. Politician tended to influence a great deal who Kenyans put into public office. In Kenya they often whip up ETHNIC appeal. They dictated who your friend or foe was based on ETHNIC identity.
December 5th 2016 may have just given birth to a new TRIBE – Doctors. This new tribe is brought together by only one AGENDA – improvement of the healthcare system of Kenya. This new tribe knows that improvement of PUBLIC HEALTHCARE is the key that unlocks the poor health service that has bedeviled this great country of Kenya for 53yrs. The healthcare environment is generally divided into two – Human Resource for Health who runs Health Infrastructure. Human Resource necessarily precedes or runs parallel to Health Infrastructure. Putting up health infrastructure before strengthening human resource for health is putting the proverbial “cart before the horse”. In short you need a well remunerated health workforce to operationalize any health infrastructure. That is self evident.
Now let’s see what this new tribe is? In its 35th day of the doctors’ strike no doctor has referred to another as being from any of the forty two- odd ethnic tribes. The tribe is doctor. The agenda is one – healthcare. The deliverable is only one – CBA. Evidently the current lot of politicians and technocrats are not used to this tribe. They are trying to solve now problems – aka the tribe – with old ways ethnic tribe. They attempted to fragment this new tribe along ethnic lines. The most obvious example is Bomet County. This has failed. The unity with which doctors have held forte despite government innuendo, lies and attempted propaganda is a phenomenon to behold. Let the politicians take note!
What is this new phenomenon? It is AGENDA. The doctors from all walks of life and ethnicities have one and only one AGENDA – healthcare. Their tribe is one – DOCTOR. They have resisted being “artificially” divided along ethnic lines. They are above that. Is this a new era for Kenyan politics? I believe it is. Going forward Kenya’s politics will be defined by AGENDA politics. This will be a revolving theme in the political circles even as we approach the 2017 Kenyan elections. AGENDA will win the hearts and minds of Kenyans this year. This is thanks to the new tribe – the Kenyan doctor.
In the current stalemate where the government of Kenya refuses to implement the legally signed Collective Bargaining Agreement (#CBA) signed willingly after one and a half years of negotiations with KMPDU – the Kenyan doctors union
Let us see what the agendas for 2017 will be as raised by the doctors strike.
- HEALTH
Without a doubt implementation of the CBA will lead to a dramatic improvement in the public healthcare. This will have a ripple effect and private healthcare will also improve as public healthcare sets the minimum health needed for the public - TRUSTWORTHINESS
Questions of sincerity arise. Can you trust a government that one day signs a document and the next day disowns the same document it signed and attempts to bring excuses to invalidate the document? I do not think so. Fortunately the principle of separation of powers allows other branches of government to see the truth. The fresh independent judiciary has declared the document valid. The government just needs to sit down with the union, polish it a little and deposit it with the same court. Lack of trustworthiness of a government has serious implications on living. E.g. the government could give you a title deed today and after you have completed paying for it the same government denies allocating you the title deed. Do you want to live in a country where you cannot trust your government? That has political implications - PUBLIC RESOURCE USE
Do you want your resources spent in keeping you healthy for you to enjoy and also contribute to an increase in the same public resource? We must demand that the government use public resources to improve the healthcare. When doctors demand a paltry percentage of the public resources so that they improve the health of Kenyans the Kenyan public MUST support them. When public resources are used for non essential purposes or stolen outright the public must get very angry and reject that.
In conclusion dear Kenyans in the #Lipakamatender the doctors strike demanding the implementation of a legally signed CBA between Ministry of Health of Kenya on behalf of the government and KMPDU the doctors union is a new beginning for Kenyan politics – AGENDA politics. The doctors’ agenda is improvement of healthcare in Kenya. There are other underlying agendas such as unbridled, unfair, skewed capitalism hell-bent of destroying healthcare in Kenya. WE THE TRIBE – KENYAN DOCTOR, protectors of Kenya’s health have refused. Kenyan doctors have shown that indeed we can have a united Kenya that is governed by development agenda such as healthcare. Kenyan doctors have shown that with a higher vision the Kenyan politician cannot divide us along ethnic lines. In the long run peace prevails. The Kenyan doctor is the peace ambassador for this country now.
Today as part of the #Uhuruchallenge we relaunch a new #TRIBE – #KENYANDOCTOR. I sign of with advice to the Kenya Government – Consider the Kenyan doctors’ strike a tender and health the new agenda in politics. Health will make or break the new politician – LipaKamaTender!