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By Dr. Flex.

Let me ask you a question before we indulge: Do idle minds really set things ablaze? Well, guess who is idle right now… Not me. 

What the fuck is going on? Do we even have a country anymore? Our ancestors must be turning in their grave’s day by day. Let’s get a little unnerved and talk about the Kenyan health system. Ah! The Kenyan health system- a true mirror of misplaced priorities, mismanagement, and dysfunctional system. If the healthcare system were a comedy, then Kenya would be the mother of satire. It would shine and head every global stage around the globe. Sadly, this isn’t comedy. It’s the reality of millions of Kenyans' lives who have mastered the craft of endurance, quite literally, while suffering in endless queues at public health facilities that look like war zones. What the heck!

Talk about shortage of staff in our hospitals. One doctor for over 6,000 patients? Bravo! What an achievement. Anyway, who needs the World Health Organization’s regulations and standards when we have our own “miracle workers” trying to juggle dozens of patients within an hour? Doctors have become saints, no doubt for sure, pulling double and triple shifts smiling, concealing the shear exhaustion within. Have you ever felt being claustrophobic? The intern doctors have been squeezed into a small space of unending agony. But of course, asking for adequate staffing and better working conditions is apparently too ambitious for a country that dreams of marching towards universal health coverage.

Do you know about the situation in rural areas? It's even more poetic. Clinics with no running water, electricity, and medicine cabinets that look like they have been hit by a zombie apocalypse. Patients are the ones who suffer the whole deal. They travel for hours-sometimes even days- only to meet the phrase “hakuna dawa”. Worry less, there’s always a working TV in the waiting bays to stream political rallies full of promises that never come. After all, politicians love the poor so much, they make sure they never run out of them.

Speaking of promises, the head of state has mastered this art profusely.  Have you ever heard of economic Darwinism, Kenyan edition? Let me define this for you, dearest Mzalendo. The brilliant leaders of this honorable country decided to slash healthcare budget by 14.2 billion this year. To them, just a small trim-only the line between life and death for the poor. The funding programs for indigent groups? These ones completely defunded. Definitely, if you’re broke, you probably don’t deserve to be in good health.

Talk about the social health authority (SHA) what a fucking sham. The feigned and glamorous novel version of NHIF, touted as the global savior of the people. Alas, like every stupidly planned KK initiative, is floundering. They claim millions have registered, but a mere fraction actually contributes to this new salvage program. And who can actually blame them? Kenyans aren’t naïve anymore. With trust in public programs at the rock bottom, citizens would rather save cash for funerals than trust “SHAM” to provide health coverage.

On another level, slogans are easier to manufacture than medicine. The pharmaceutical industry is failing and operating at merely half capacity. At the same time, shelves remain empty as we scramble to import alternative expensive medications. Sometimes, you may think a government screaming “Buy Kenya, Build Kenya” would at bare minimum strive to build a working supply chain. And what do poor Kenyans get instead? Healthcare blueprints, stupid lavish conferences and a conveyor of reforms that are revolutionary on paper but in reality, pure chaos. More suffering. Oh! Almost forgetting, life in this penurious country has never been better-citizens thriving on cool vibes, taxes, and empty promises. Who needs food and better jobs when you have endless press drama and hiking prices to keep you humored?

If you ask me, the Kenyan system is marvelous- if you’re studying how not to run a healthcare system.