I am one of those who fully support the provision for public discussion in our present constitution because the purpose is to ensure that Kenyans are provided with meaningful opportunities to discuss and resolve important policy directions and policies, including new laws to ensure that things are not imposed on Kenyans by the government, as has been the case all the time.
When I saw that Kenyan opposition groups are against the Sh. 207 billion deal between the Kenyan government and the United States administration to provide healthcare services to wananchi, my first question was what choice they have for Kenyans.
Are the opposition chaps sitting on some Sh. 207 billion hard cash they can unleash to provide Kenyans with good healthcare, or is the opposition telling Kenyans that they are fine if folks are dying right, left, and centr,e and they are going to have a public participation on how to make that easy for them.
Millions of Kenyans will be very eager to join the opposition in a public discussion on how to make dying from poor health easier, and more profitable to the country than providing better healthcare to the citizens. All doctors and nurses, as well as all healthcare providers, would be very eager to have a public discussion on how to work without getting paid and keep doing it with no problems at all.
Medical equipment providers and pharmacies all over the country and across the globe will be ecstatic to discuss how to provide all that Kenya needs without asking for a penny. So please, let the United Opposition fellas and others who want to dismantle the agreement between Kenya, and the USA funding health services start the discussion on how Kenyans can live without any money for healthcare and Kenyans will cheer them, all the way to heaven up there in the moon.
Let’s start with some obvious problems in healthcare in Kenya at this time and one of the biggest nightmares is that President Donald Trump has stopped funding for international agencies and for Kenya, the huge loss is that money and resources from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is gone, and it is a key pillar in providing funding and employing a huge amount of healthcare workers all across the country.
Vast amounts of healthcare equipment in just about every public hospital in Kenya has been paid for through funding from USAID.
If Kenya today cancels its deal with the USA to fund healthcare, all Kenyans who were getting support from USAID are underwater, and maybe the opposition has a perfect formula to replace USAID funding by holding massive harambees all over the country. Whether they will reach Sh. 207 billion is another story, and good luck to those Kenyans who will be waiting for that.
Then we have Amref Health Africa, which is the continent’s largest African-led health organization with headquarters in Nairobi, providing health services to more than 35 countries to strengthen health systems and expand access to life-saving care.
With USAID money gone, AMREF is going to face a major turning point, and for those who know what AMREF does in Kenya, it is hard to imagine the impact on healthcare services in Kenya if AMREF cannot get enough funding. That means all those Kenyans getting healthcare support from AMREF will have to turn to the government to provide that care. Where will the money come from if the opposition gets its way and kills the deal with the USA?
Maybe we should all listen to the words of Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, who strongly defended the Kenya–United States Health Cooperation Framework, warning that continued opposition and litigation risk undermining critical programmes that support millions of Kenyans and sustain thousands of health sector jobs. Governor Nassir is the current chairman of the Council of Governors (CoG) Health Committee.
“We are still drafting this programme, but there are three main agendas. First, there was the USAID, which had ongoing programmes, and we don’t want to stall and go back to square one. Things such as HIV, drug abuse and communicable diseases,” Nassir said.
“Secondly, this programme had already employed over 20,000 people. It will start officially in 2027 and run for five years. Now, some people have moved to court, yet it’s not like the programme is utilising loans, it’s free.”
“I urge those people who pretend that they care for this country more than anyone else, not to take us back. It takes a lot for a country to be able to develop diplomatic relations with another country.
“It takes a lot for another country to be able to be entrusted to deliver, and the amount of money that we are talking about is in the region of $1.6 billion.”
“I tell Kenyans, brace yourselves for tighter times because we are our own enemies. This notion of opposing everything that we do, how will you benefit if community health promoters are not paid?
“How will you benefit if the youth are not employed? How will you benefit if there is an increase in disease outbreaks in the country? There is no shilling spent that’s coming from us, we will deal with you.”
Kenyans need to pay attention to what the Mombasa Governor has said and be realistic about how to handle healthcare in the country because if the deal with the USA dies. We will have a complete meltdown in health services in Kenya, with poor people dying everywhere. The same opposition leaders now doing their best to kill the deal will offer nothing to Kenyans, as those opposition leaders themselves enjoy the best healthcare services in the country, paid for by Kenyan taxes. Does that look like a promising option for Kenyans on their healthcare?
The one big problem with public participation, which the opposition politicians have never figured out, is to establish a clear framework of what public participation means.
If politicians call big rallies and talk about the healthcare deal with the USA, is that sufficient public participation? How does the public show which side they support in any decision? Do they raise their hands in rallies for support? Do they vote after rallies to show support or rejection of proposed policies by the government?
Should Kenyans hold rallies in every constituency to decide issues and determine what the Kenyan government does with the healthcare deal? Is there a requirement to have public events in every county to make decisions about how to get things done in Kenya?
Simply put, there is no definition whatsoever of what public participation really constitutes in Kenya today as per our constitution. These politicians have refused to put a public participation requirement into an act of parliament with specifics on how public participation should be done in Kenya. That is the same thing Kenyan politicians from all walks have done with the much heralded Chapter Six of the 2010 (Integrity) constitution, which states people with criminal problems and legal issues should never hold any public office.
If you ask any Kenyan today if we have political leaders in our public offices who meet Chapter Six of our constitution, they will laugh at you because we have actual murderers holding public offices, robbery of public money in Kenya is an honour every politician enjoys, and that is Integrity Law for them. In fact, if you are not a thief and are broke, you have no place in Kenyan politics. That is Chapter Six for Kenya today. How lovely.
The real issue here is that the Kenyan parliament, since 2010, has refused to pass a law requiring political candidates and leaders to face and deal with requirement of the Integrity Law of leadership in Kenya if concrete issues are raised by Kenyans about them.
For the opposition, public participation means running to the nearest media microphone and yelling at the top of their voices about what they disagree with and issuing political threats.
In those media speeches, the opposition today will never offer a single idea on the options they have for Kenyans. If no media wants to pay attention to them, they would rush to their social media X account and make repeated speeches to themselves that mean nothing to anybody.
The first thing Kenyans need to figure out in parliament is to set up specific requirements on how public participation events will be carried out. Politicians can’t do that because they only want to yap endlessly about government policies and have no need or conscience to provide better alternatives. Let the leaders denouncing the deal already signed to put forward their plan, and then Kenyans can compare that to what President Ruto has on the table.
If the opposition were honest, they would agree that if public rallies were held today all over Kenya to ask the citizens if they want the health deal with the US cancelled, those trying to get the health deal stopped would be running away from angry Kenyans who won’t be interested in dealing with their do-nothing nonsense anymore. Those are the facts on the ground.
Let Kenyans vote on this healthcare deal today, and it will get more than 90% of the vote. Ruto can provide a guarantee that if his health deal were put to a vote, it would romp to victory and make the opposition look lost and helpless. Let them kill the healthcare deal if they want and they will find out what Kenyans think about it at the next elections.
My advice to President Ruto and his team working on healthcare is pretty simple. Take the healthcare deal with the USA to the Kenyan masses and talk to them directly about what they will get from it and how any risks that may arise are being dealt with.
You have launched enough roads and affordable housing projects Mr. President, now it is time for you to go launch your healthcare plans talking directly with Kenyans. Go everywhere in the country and explain what the whole deal constitutes and how it will affect healthcare services in the country.
All the opposition has to do is to go out there and tell Kenyans that as soon as they take government from William Ruto that healthcare deal with the USA with be cancelled immediately. I am sure that will win them millions of votes but of course they don’t have the courage to do it and Kenyans know why.
Incidentally, Kenya was the first to sign that health deal with the USA, and Uganda has since followed and signed a similar deal. If Kenya wants to pull out of the deal, many countries in Africa will be doing everything to take that up from President Trump. And last thing, Trump is a hectic dude and if he gets the sense that Kenya politicians are playing games with the deal and accusing his government of all sorts of things he would be very happy to take that money back mara moja.
Some Kenyans would suggest that the bigger issue for the country now with Kenya–United States Health Cooperation Framework already signed is to discuss how that money and health resources generated from that is going to be used in a transparent and efficient way to benefit the citizens not William Ruto and his friends or anybody else for that matter.
That is where Kenyans need to have those public discussions with their MPs if they can take a few days from Nairobi and then take to parliament what Kenyans expect from public health and what is missing and those can be addressed. That probably would be a more practical and maybe even productive way for Kenyans to have input on what they expect from their government in terms of getting the healthcare they need.
