Kenya’s Ailing Health Sector: Cancer Continues To Pluck Both The Mighty And The Lowly

On Friday, MP for Kibra Constituency, Mr. Ken Okoth, lost the battle to colorectal cancer, a disease that kept him out of the country for 5 months.

He was receiving medication in France before returning to Kenya two weeks ago. Sources say he died after asking doctors to turn off his life supporting machine.

Ken Okoth’s death came few weeks after that of the then Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore, who died on 1st of July this year. Bob was suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

In December, 2017, the then MP for Kitui West and KANU-era powerful Cabinet Minister, Mr. Francis Nyenje died of colon cancer.

Nyenze had battled the disease for more than 10 years. During his swearing in to the 12th Parliament, he had an oxygen tank strapped to his body to support him.

In April, 2018, Grace Kipchoin, the then MP for Baringo South died of cancer while undergoing treatment at Nairobi Hospital.

Kipchoin was sickly even during her election. Since she was a good leader, the electorate voted her in because they knew her development record.

It is evident that cancer is a menace that is plucking people daily from this country. We only hear of it when a prominent person dies but thousands of Kenyans are succumbing to it daily.

Stats show that at least 30,000 Kenyans die annually from cancer related diseases. These numbers should be enough to scare us to the core. Cancer is now more dangerous than HIV and is killing more people annually than any other disease.

Sadly, discussions about cancer often come to the limelight whenever a prominent person dies.

Our leaders will vehemently condemn the disease in funerals of prominent persons, promise to do something about it and forget immediately the funeral is over.

Ironically, 63 Members of Parliament, both in the National Assembly and Senate are battling cancer. More than 50 of them are seeking medication in India, others in the United States of America and others in the United Kingdom but, in silence for fear of “stigmatisation.”

Despite the fact that 63 of them are battling cancer, you will rarely hear them raise the subject in parliament to try and fix the situation. Thanks to the money they have, they can afford medication in other countries such as India, USA and the UK. But what about the common man?

The truth is, poor Kenyans are dying of cancer daily. The majority of them cannot afford treatment, leave alone flying out of the country to India. Cancer is a dead sentence to thousands of Kenyans. This is the truth.

Kenyans continue to die in silence, not because they want to, but because they cannot afford. Every time you hear that someone in the rural areas has died because of “witchcraft,” in most cases, it is usually cancer. It has reached a time that we should call a spade a spade. Cancer is a menace.

Most Kenyans die even without knowing that it is cancer that is killing them. This is because they are too poor to afford even a screening of the same, what is more, our public hospitals lack the equipment to detect cancer even at its early stages.

I think our leaders are selfish. Very selfish. They know they have money to seek medication anywhere in the world every time they are sick but don’t want those who elected them access the same at home. If they did, they would have legislated for the establishment of better healthcare, including cancer centers in every county to help Kenyans.

Someone said that African leaders don’t care about their continent. To them, their countries are just “sources of income.” They take their children abroad to school, seek medication abroad and shop abroad. They only value Africa, when they die.

Our health system is sick. It is ailing. It is in a pathetic state and unless our leaders wake up from the over-prolonged stupor, Kenyans will continue to die. It is a shame that more than 50 years after independence, Kenyans cannot find even painkillers in some public hospitals. It is a shame. It is more shame when our leaders shamelessly, and without any fear of contradiction, talk of universal health. Which universal health?

They are busy stealing public funds and constructing malls. What if someone stole public funds and built an ultramodern affordable cancer centre for Kenyans? What if that happened? But no. They are too busy stealing, too busy investing in malls to think of such an idea.

At one time, activist Boniface Mwangi said that if you are poor and you get sick in Kenya, you will die. I agree with him. If you are middle class, and you get sick in Kenya, you will first become poor, run into debts then die.

Healthcare is a luxury that can only be accessed by a few who have their pockets loaded with cash. For the common man, get sick go to public hospital, get admitted, sometimes no medication, die, your people bury you and forget about you. That is the sad reality.

It is time our leaders woke up. It is time we talked about cancer. It is time we thought of how thousands of Kenyans will have access to medication.