By Michael Oriedo
Mr Kambi, are women childbearing machines?
In other parts of the world, when Government officials make pronouncements or engage in actions that contravene State policies, they resign.
The Government cannot serve the public well if its officials dismiss policies they are to implement. But this is Kenya, a land where senior Government employees seemingly have little regard for State policies or structures. One, therefore, would expect Medical Services Assistant Minister Kazungu Kambi to get away with urging women to ignore family planning services and give birth to as many children as they wish. Kambi told his constituents he has used CDF money to build health facilities that have maternity wings, which must be utilised.
The only way the facilities can be maximised, according to the minister, is by women having unplanned births. PointBlank believes it is scandalous for such a statement to come from a minister in-charge of the health docket, which ironically is the custodian of family planning services. Does it mean the minister thinks women are birth machines? Such remarks point out that Kenya’s efforts to reduce its population are doomed.
Switch off that engine at your own peril
Prices of fuel have dropped, therefore Mombasa resident Justin Osey hopes some drivers will stop the nauseating habit of switching off vehicles’ engines to save fuel.
“This happens mostly when driving down a slope. The culprits are mainly truck drivers. They switch off engines and let the heavy trucks move on gravity,” he observes. This practice, according to Osey, endangers lives of road users and experience has shown it ends tragically. “I warn them, switching off the engine can lock the steering wheel making the vehicle uncontrollable,” he notes.
And still on fuel matters, Osey has no kind words for oil marketers who have declined to reduce cost of fuel after Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) cut pump prices on Saturday.
“Some are claiming they are still selling old stock yet ERC asked them to reduce prices. This is selfish and is meant to hurt consumers who are burdened by high cost of living,” he laments.
Osey asks ERC to crack the whip for the sake of Kenyans since most oil marketers push up prices as soon as the regulator reviews fuel prices upwards.
