Mr President, Why Are You Mute on the Health Crisis?

By the Mr. President, are you aware that there is a nationwide strike involving medical doctors? Are you aware that the strike has now entered its fourth week? Are you aware that public hospitals are now ailing and in the Intensive Care Unit and that patients have had to return back to their homes to either die or hold on any available shread of hope?

Am asking you these questions Mr. President because you seem to be giving no damn of the suffering Kenyan patients. Am asking you these questions Mr. President because you seem not to care at all of what is going on. Is the crisis so insignificant that it cannot event attract your attention?

Mr. President, during the 53rd Jamhuri Day celebrations, many Kenyans, including me expected you to start the address to the nation with the mystery in the Kenyan public hospitals. But what did you do? You started with the success of the National Youth Service, then finished with blaming some imaginary foreign powers for seeking to influence political choices in the country. In the end, you had said nothing about the ingoing doctors’ strike.

I know you will say that there is the Ministry of Health. Oh please, give us a break. Who are you? Let me tell you who you are sir. You are the CEO of this country. You are the president. You are the Head of State of Kenyans. Everything is under you. Power, money, influence and what you only need is to say something. People are eagerly waiting for your word on this matter and the more you keep silent to leave the poor Kenyans to continue dying the more people see you are arrogant and inhuman.

And it seems there is no any voice of reason among the politicians both in your camp and from the opposition. What they care about is the next general election. They don’t give a damn of the dying Kenyans. They convene a special session in parliament to discuss elections while Kenyans are dying. How I wish that special session was called to discuss the plight of the Kenyan patient and the Kenyan doctors? But again, who cares about the dying poor Kenyan?

Mr. President, this was just a short letter. Please read it and realize that it your time to act. History will judge you. People will be saying that “During the reign of President Uhuru Kenyatta, there was the longest doctors’ ever in history and many people died and the President did nothing.” Do you want history to judge you that way? Of course not. It is time Mr. President, it is time you said something.

Happy New Year Mr. President but we are dying here!