[President Uhuru Kenyatta when he spoke about the on-going doctors’ strike in Naivasha. Photo/Tuko.co.ke]
Never has there been a time where the rule of law has been thrown to the dogs like during the 2013 presidential election where ICC suspects were allowed to run for the top most elective seats.
The phrase 'choices have consequences' coined by the then US ambassador to Kenya, Johnnie Carson, has been haunting Kenyans since the dynamic duo took over the Presidency .
Kenyans have been reminded time and again that the two are in power and the rest are out in the cold. A punchline coined by president Uhuru is a constant reminder that power and those who pursue it just want to ‘eat’ the meat while the rest of us salivate.
The thing that is getting clearer everyday is that there are only two tribes in Kenya, the rich and the poor.
Nothing has better shown this divide than the doctor’s strike which has depleted if not exhausted all available sources of income for poor Kenyans with sick relatives.
The doctors have been advocating for improvement of the public health sector and their terms of employment. The government was okay with increase in salary of 40% but backed down once the implications of the CBA became known to them.
Implementation of the CBA meant stocking of public hospitals with machinery ,adequate staff and medicine which would improve service delivery and encourage quality healthcare.
The CBA is a threat to private hospitals and insurance companies who work hard to ensure that people seek private solutions to public problems. If the public healthcare system was functioning efficiently, most people would opt out of medical insurance as the compulsory NHIF cover would be enough to cater for treatment in the pubic hospitals.
The implications of this would also mean that private hospitals will have less clients, who they will overcharge for basic procedures and checkups.
A study carried out concluded that most salaried employees would not step in a private hospital if the option of insurance cover was not catered for by the employer, especially if public hospitals offered the same facilities and services .
The doctors demands might seem unreasonable but think about it, who would you get a better pay? Doctors or legislators who earn sitting allowances for team building?