ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna says if there is any money set aside for the BBI, it should be used by the government to buy Covid-19 vaccines for Kenyans, who have been worst hit by the economic and health devastation of the virus. Speaking to Citizen TV on Tuesday morning, Sifuna said eventhough he knows the government has not set aside any funds for the project, if there were any funds being used, it should be directed towards a free vaccine for every Kenyan.
”Kenyans are tired of consultations & stories, even if we do not have our own original ideas, copy what others are doing in the world. There is no money spent on BBI, but if there is a single shilling that was going into BBI we can use it to buy vaccines,” the ODM Secretary General said during the Day Break show.
Sifuna said it was embarassing for the CS of Health, Mutahi Kagwe to announce on TV that the country has run out of oxygen cylinders, and is not adequately prepared to to handle Covid. A year after the first case of infection was announced.
”It is embarrassing that a year down the line, we still talk of unpreparedness. Price of oxygen cylinders have heavily been taxed. Now that BBI is on pause, I’m happy that this time round, people will not say we do not have cylinders because of BBI.”
On Monday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the country is running low on quality cylinders in health facilities as 121 patients lay in the Intensive Care Unit with 32 on ventilatory support, 82 on supplemental oxygen. The CS appealed to Kenyans to present any excess medical cylinders to hospitals that have patients in need of oxygen.
He urged those using cylinders for non-covid care to surrender them immediately.
“I don’t think people are appreciating just how important it is that we don’t just have cylinders lying around when people are dying because of lack of oxygen” Kagwe said.
