Sammuel999
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 1, 2016
- 3,481
- 2,346
VERY VERY VERY LOOOONG POST ALERT!!!!! If you're a mediocre lazy Kenyan, don't even start reading, because I will bore you to death. I don't vent or rant on social media, I don't talk about my personal life on social media. I don't get personal with people on social media. I don't brag or gloat on social media. But today is an exception. Am breaking all the rules I've set for myself. Today, I have zero chills. Last night, the GSU was called on me and my cohort. THE FREAKING GSU!!!!!!! Not even the kawaida anti-riot police. No, THE GSU. Am still digesting that. And if whatever am going to say here sounds haughty, inconsiderate or condescending, I'll offer you my unsolicited piece of advice: stop reading, get a hold of yourself, put your unreasonable insecurities to rest and then you and your issues can sit on a sharp pin for all I care. Or anything else that will hurt your behind. One more thing... Don't bother pouring your vitriol as a comment, because there's a delete button. Today am not taking nonsense. Here's my story, and that of many other responsible hardworking Kenyans who have been raised right. Yes, raised to believe in the virtues of patriotism and those of hard work.... It all started in December 2005. I had passed my KCPE so well, and so when asked what I wanted to do, of course I said I wanted to be a NEUROSURGEON... Like everyone else. I didn't know what that was, but it sounded really fancy!!!! NEUROSURGEON. Mmmmmmh... Enway, the only thing I knew that time was that I had a special liking for sciences, especially those concerning the human body. Come January 2006, I joined one of those old traditional national schools, The Duke of York School, now going by Lenana School. It was the last place I wanted to go to. I had put it as my last option just to fill up space, since those days, we had to select 4 national schools. Those days if you didn't make it to Alliance or Starehe or Mang'u then you knew, albeit falsely, that your future was precariously hanging on the line. Of course belief systems have changed, but that was then. Anyhow, four years passed and when I left the school, I could not help but feel so privileged and honored to have been there. During that four-year stay, I came across chemistry (my first love) and biology (my VERY enchanting mistress. She was a total wild card that one..). My interest in the sciences was sparked and my passion in medicine was ignited and later cemented. When the results came out and I had managed to excel again, I knew medical school was just a while away. And before you tell me my grade was not Matiang'i - approved, just know that am worth my mettle. Fast forward to today, with a first class Bsc in Anatomy and an impending MBChB, Matiang'i and his insinuations and inuendos can sit on that hot sharp pin I mentioned earlier. And I have served my countrymen in various capacities. A poignant instance was immediately after the Garrissa terrorist attack. Together with the senior pathologists in the country, we worked round the clock at Chiromo Funeral Parlour to perform postmortems as required by law on the already decomposing bodies of victims of that horrific attack. But who cares about the sight and smell of a decomposing human body when you have a national duty to perform. That experience brought me face to face with what humans are capable of. Be they terrorists, be they the political class, be they men of the cloth, be they you or me. The bullet wounds were innumerable. You would see a body with over ten bullet wounds. I can't describe the exit wounds on the head and neck regions. It suffices though, to say that there were near total decapitations and faceless remains. The memories remain so vivid, albeit almost traumatic. But am grateful I don't have PTSD yet. No one tells you these things. All you hear from UHURUTO and their mouthpiece Esipisu is that the government is doing its best to maintain security. To seal the porous borders, to solve the health crisis. Well, they need to know that their "very best" isn't good enough. It's getting my fellow countrymen killed like dogs in Somalia, it's getting my age mates killed in Garrissa, it's getting my mother's age mates accessing healthcare with Stage IV cervical cancer. It's getting my father's age mates dying of prostate cancer. A little too late. And FYI, stage IV means that the cancer has spread away from the initial site of origin, hence chances of being healed getting closer to none. All this is happening yet such cancers can be detected by a simple screening test 10 years before they start growing and spreading, therefore meaning they can be totally cured. (By, the way, cervical cancer screening only costs you Ksh 600/= at KNH). All this is happening while the billions you pay as taxes are looted by Muraguri and his ilk. All this is happening while the government has gone to bed with international corporations to sell our country. 100 billion shillings is what we were sold for. And guess who our new owner is,...the IFC (International finance corporation) through various private equity companies. The apparent goal of IFC is to improve Healthcare in Kenya by investing in private health facilities. While in 4th year in medical school, I studied some bit of public health. It's called public health because it deals with health measures that can be implemented to benefit the biggest chunk of the public. Therefore, if the World Bank and the IFC were so passionate about improving the health status of Kenyans as they claim, isn't it logic to invest in the public health facilities, which comprise the majority and which cater for 99% of the population? Moving on swiftly, while in Mama Lucy hospital last year, we came across one of the private equity companies (The Abraaj Group) which had come to visit the public health facility in order to size up its competition. One of my colleagues, Ngure Brian , started asking the tough questions to these private investors. Once cornered, the Asian gentleman finally came clean: it all boils down to the profits they make. It's not about improving the quality of health of Kenyans. By the way, for the sake of eliminating your ignorance, Google that article. That is news that made it to the New York Times. If you can't, then just believe what we in the healthcare sector tell you. If not for any reason, at least for the fact that we are armed with knowledge and because you refer to us as the "intelligentsia" Anyway, what pains me most is not that our leaders are selling us out bit by bit, it's the fact that everyone seems okay with it. But then again, you have an 8-5 job somewhere in upper hill, you earn 60k net a month, you have a car loan, you stay in a 1-bed room somewhere in Roysambu, you have a health insurance from your employer worth 50k a year. So, in your little pink perfect world of roses, you are okay. But we all know that you live from paycheck to paycheck. We know your fridge screams hollow. We know in case of a medical emergency, you will result to those social media medical appeals. Yes, you!!! You who is so proud to showcase your beautiful wife /husband and child while enjoying a weekend in these overpriced shopping malls of Nairobi. Yet if that mall came under a terrorist siege, your death and that of your loved ones would just be another statistic while Manoah Esipisu would be fumbling for words to explain why your government did not protect you. They are not far-fetched imaginations. These are things that happened. What else could you ask for? Maybe I am stupid for expecting you to stand up for your country. You are living the perfect dream, aren't you? So much that you even dare call me selfish, greedy and inhuman when I demand for a functional public healthcare. Was I selfish when I volunteered to serve my nation during the Garrissa tragedy? Was I inhuman when one of my learned friends and I helped a street mother safely deliver her newborn and later took her to KNH? Am I greedy when I dutifully serve TB patients without a protective N95 mask? I have had to go through a lot and sacrifice even more just to get to where I am. I have cancelled my attendance on so many family events. I spent last Christmas at Kijabe Hospital, because I felt I was doing more there, than at home with the people I love. The ones who painstakingly raised me. And on a more personal level, at some point, we had to part ways with my then girlfriend of about 4yrs because I was "too busy" I agree I am not an expert when it comes to relationships. My social skills might be in need of some polishing up. Just so you know am good influence,, she is happily married and with two or three children, I think. And am truly happy for her. Imagine how her life would be messed up with me playing games with GSU. I can be a little bit too obsessed when it comes to something am passionate about. (Yet I was accused of being in this for money, not passion) But don't get me wrong, I am not venting because it's valentines. But that's what I've had to give up. Yet am only a toddler, a newborn even, in this profession. I can only imagine that if the status quo remains, things will only get worse. I recently visited the Netherlands, Germany and Czech Republic. Apart from enjoying the Red light district of Amsterdam, the Castle of Prague and the Berlin Wall Memorial, top on the agenda was to enhance my knowledge and skills at the Charite` Medical University Hospital, the largest consortium of hospitals in Europe. I got to learn a lot while assisting in kidney transplants and robotic prostatectomies. Yes, there, they are beyond the level of doing laparoscopic surgeries. They're now into robots. (At KNH, am told that the only available laparoscopic tower is currently broken down). All these interventions are offered based on necessity, not whether you can afford it or not. Because while the taxation is almost at 40%, out of pocket health care expenses are close to nil, if any. The Government caters for the health of it's citizenry. The government also handles the city public transport—trains, trams, buses, subways. And for you to know that it's VERY FUNCTIONAL, you just need to hear the rest of Europe and especially the Britons complain that Germans are ruthlessly efficient. And by the way, Germany doesn't have a military. Not like the ones being killed in Somalia or the ones disrupting doctors' peaceful vigil. Ready to pounce on us with rungus, and wash us with some weird water. The revival of Germany started with the US Marshal plan. And that plan has transformed post world War Germany to the economic, industrial and political powerhouse that it currently is. Maybe you could read it sometime. When you are taking a break from calling doctors all sorts of profanities, enlighten yourself a little bit. Some neural stimulation is required for your intellectual development. May be then you will see some light. Maybe then you will stand up and ask the government why you don't have universal health, and why you have to buy a car because the public transport is a mess, and why women still die while giving birth, and why doctors are busy leaving the public sector and the country all together. Heck, I should as well consider leaving now that the masses we are fighting for are too busy calling us selfish to see the facts for what they are. Enway, if you have half the brains I think you have, you should be catching my drift. I hope I don't need to use a diagram to illustrate what am saying for you to comprehend. Because that would be injustice to the artists, they can do a far better job than me. If you cannot decipher the injustices and social evils av just pointed out, my friend, you are dead cognitively, and there's no amount of uthamaki or NASA will emancipate you. It's your time to stand up and be counted. To demand for your worth. In the meantime, let me go look for my chills at Railways Club, I might have left them there while running away from some brainwashed uniformed idiots. Those who have never seen the doors of institutions of higher learning, those who have refused to free themselves from the mental slavery they live in. Those who have refused to drink from the oasis of liberal and limitless thinking. Those who got Ds and are comfortable living in round tin houses and paying taxes without asking a question. Those who are ready to beat up the think tank of the nation. They're ready to beat up the people who formulate the policies that transform our societies for the better. Now, let me get my composure and calm back. And so as to validate your insults towards me and my cohort, I'll say that indeed, I am selfish. This writeup has been immensely therapeutic to me. I did it for me. No apologies made. And once again, if you feel hurt, in any way, go sit on that pin we talked about. Ni hayo tu machache kwa sasa. Ooooh, I almost forgot... If you can afford it, happy valentines. (C'mon, you cannot possibly blame me for forgetting trivial issues like valentines, these days, my mind only retains info which I deem crucial for survival, like CBA).
February 14 at 2:46pm · Nairobi ·
February 14 at 2:46pm · Nairobi ·
