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Of The Strike
By Dr . Maureen Owiti
It is very heart breaking , to see that Wanjiku has once again been left to her own devices in the name of seeking healthcare . What is very ironic is because of the current situation , private hospitals are filled to capacity as a result of this industrial action . An old adage goes that when elephants are fighting it is the grass that gets trampled on ! The only question is in the current scenario , who are the elephants and who has the unfortunate title of grass .
I don ’ t think there is anyone in doubt about at least one elephant , which is the Government of our present day run by his Excellency Dr William Samoei Ruto , and represented by the Cabinet Secretary none other than Madam Susan Nakhumicha herself .
Very honestly , I would not want to be in her shoes and I fear to attack her as it appears as though it is only female leaders , who seem to pay the price for any misstep or indiscretion . Currently the validity of her papers especially her bachelors in pharmacy appear to be in question as she appears to have done them online . For her sake I pray that she is proved right but only time will tell .
Whether Susan Nakhumicha is a pharmacist or not , she has other qualifications in supply chain management so it is neither here nor there , however the handling of some issues raises more questions than answers .
One of the compelling reasons of the strike was the failure of Government to deploy Medical Officer Interns ( MOI ) to various stations . The MOI need to complete their internship in order for their names to appear in the roll of doctors overseen by the Kenya Medical practitioners and Dentists ’ Council .
Kenya has a very low per capita ratio of only 0.2 doctors per 1000 population . Comparatively , Cuba has the highest ratio of 8.4 doctors per 1000 , followed by Monaco 7.8 and Greece 6.3 per 1000 . In Africa , South Africa has 0.8 , while Tunisia at 1.3 , appears to be the highest . As you can see the health indices of the country are a far cry from the ideal , just because of the available health personnel .
At present from the website of the council we have 17,040 doctors registered . Please note that this is since the first doctor was registered . I do not know how many are still active of this but includes all doctors who have ever been registered to practice in the country . Following the wise words of our President “ mambo ni matatu ” ulipe ( paid their dues ), uhame ( those abroad ) or uende mbinguni ( deceased ). I ’ m not quite sure if there is another option but I could estimate that there are at about 12,000 active doctors from the site .
With a population of approximately 55 million Kenya has a very low per capita ratio of only 0.2 doctors per 1000 population which appears to be the average for most African countries . To compare , Cuba has the highest ratio of 8.4 doctors per 1000 , followed by Monaco 7.8 and Greece 6.3 per 1000 . In Africa , South Africa has 0.8 , while Tunisia at 1.3 , appears to be the highest . As you can see the health indices of the country are a far cry from the ideal , just because of the available health personnel .
Back to the Interns , from the CS Health , she reports that she does not have the budget to pay interns and judging from the way things are being done she may actually be saying the truth . The only challenge comes when the same person threatens doctors saying she can hire 3000 doctors . Now where is she getting the funds for this recruitment process . It defeats logic and I think it is much cheaper to have the revolving fund for interns than to hire 3000 new doctors . If they are all to remain in service , they would have to get pay increments on annual basis and let us not forget promotions and based on salary
12 MAL59 / 24 ISSUE