Stop insults and negotiate with striking health workers in Kenya

We have not handled the health sector well. The ongoing doctors’ strike and its impact is the price society pays for mismanaging a highly sensitive sector. It is a factor of an insensitive National Government usurping devolved functions and funds without intending to give back anything, except cosmetic tokens and official mirage.

We are wallowing in the mess that a people must sink into when Government is about “eating meat” while “others salivate,” as President Uhuru Kenyatta says. Under these circumstances, those who drive the system don’t even believe in it. They don’t have to. It doesn’t matter. The important thing here is “the meat.” The rest is about showbiz, catwalks and allied political drama. Accordingly, none of the government officials in this drama has use for public hospitals. They only go there for photo opportunities and related official cowboy activities.