Post by job on Jan 8, 2007 22:55:28 GMT 3
Well, having just witnessed effects of first-hand ineptitude of a gross nature by Kenya's Policy-lacking Ministry of Foreign Affairs......in North Eastern Prvince, we are awakaned by yet another epidemic disaster spreading in the same province.
The US government, having patiently observed for a month, .....at the lax and shoddy response by Kenya's government to the Rift Valley Fever zoonosis outbreak......have decided to step in so as to avert further catastrophic spread.
www.timesnews.co.ke/09jan07/nwsstory/news3.html
At least 85 people in Kenya's Northeastern Province are now known to have died from Rift Valley Fever (RVF), while health experts from the Atlanta based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are warning that the virus has started spreading south into Coast Province.
Northeastern Province was previously hit by an outbreak of RVF in 1997 following heavy flooding caused by the El Nino weather pattern. We are now reminded that heavy rainfall and floods are related to RVF outbreaks in pastoralist areas.
The zoonotic disease is easily preventable with livestock pre-vaccination especially prior to heavy rainfall seasons. During the 1997 epidemic, the then Moi government simply failed to effect pre-vaccination measures despite early El Nino warnings. The culture of government intransigence, corruption, ineptitude and disregard for standard disease prevention measures has revisited us once again, this time under President Kibaki.
When livestock vaccination is ignored (for reasons above), and floods come, disease transmission through the aedes mosquito, or through animal milk or direct animal-to-human contact, easily spreads the Rift Valley Fever virus like bush fire. Affected humans
often encounter hemorrhagic fevers with loss of blood causing death in many cases. Livestock are not spared too, and many succumb to the disease sometimes leading to catastrophic economic effects. This is happening right now in North-Eastern Province and quickly spreading south into Coast Province.
The deafening silence and luke-worm response that the Kibaki government has treated this recent disease outbreak is amazing but not surprising. Talking about poor governance, the NARC government of president Kibaki came to power with promise to revamp policy issues in government with emphasis on improving lives of wananchi and ending the previous trend of regional marginalization of certain quarters.
Is this lax and shoddy response remotely related to the fact that the disease is mainly centered in North Eastern which is not rich in votes? Floods were expected with the prolonged rains and any responsible government that does not implement standard preventive measures for expected diseases must specifically delineate where/how it uses funds allocated for Epidemiology and Surveillance at/for.
What we are witnessing today is a continuation of the past failed policies and disregard for health and socio-economic development of previously neglected regions, of which North-Eastern Province stands out prominently.
This government certainly sees no need to allocate some little amount to implement sound policies that positively impact on lives of people it considers with little political significance. This is a case point on why North Eastern and other marginalized regions have repeatedly called for constitutional reforms to entrench majimboism into the constitution.
This calculated economic strangulation, coupled with the trademark appointments of unqualified and inept personnel to run domains they have no expertise in, based on tribal or political affiliation, makes matters worse for North-Eastern and other marginalized regions of Kenya.
Even worse, when elected local legislators (MPs) from North-Eastern and Coast Provinces choose instead to fill their stomachs by wining and dining with the NARC rulers at the expense of their underprivileged who are now suffering, then situations like this are bound to recurr. For such leaders, it is more worthy to hang
around the President pledging personal loyalty to Narc-K at Mombasa or at Naivasha playing power games than address an ongoing crisis affecting their electorate. Such is the quality of some local leadership. At least the Garissa Mayor seems to understand the cause of this gloomy plight.
The effects of the failure of the Kibaki government exhibit in forms such as this current epidemic. The worst affected districts include Garissa, where 200 cases, including 44 deaths, have been reported; and Ijara, where 20 out of 72 people infected with RVF have died. Cases of the disease have also been reported in Wajir and Tana River districts. Four confirmed deaths have been reported in Kilifi District of the Coast Province, the latest area to report RVF infection since the disease was first identified in Garissa in early December.
NARC's ineptitude and wanting policy choices is very evident at the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development. Joseph Munyao, who heads the Ministry is a yesteryear accounts clerk, while his Assistant Minister, Stephen ole Ntutu ended a rather brief educational sojourn in high school.
Is this the best we can have in our otherwise highly-skilled country? Articulation of Policy issues can never be restricted to Permanent Secretaries who are technically not heads of those Ministries ; Ministers and their Assistants must also inject policy
input based on their appropriately expected expertise, training and experience.
The current devastation by Rift Valley Fever in North-Eastern Province exemplifies just how poor policy and ineptitude, stemming right from State House, is ultimately harming the common man at the grassroots. The Livestock Ministry needs to review the statutory Acts of Parliament under which it's policy
operates, so as to implement real reforms in the livestock sector that will impact positively on pastoralist people. I guess that is a domain not fit to be steered and headed by an account clerk trained in the early 1970's, neither business to be run by a
high-school educated cattle baron courtesy of President Kibaki's political appointments. I believe there are qualified Kenyans able to fill such positions.
This current government, clouded in bad and poor policies, opts instead to apply some after-the-fact patching measures which will obviously have severely costly economic consequences on a largely impoverished region. The government has banned the slaughter of livestock in the affected areas, leading to the closure of livestock markets in a region where people depend on animals for income and food. Meanwhile, celebrations expected to mark the end of the Muslim fasting season are shortly expected. Further devastation looms.
The poor and slow response by the Health Ministry is equally appalling as we sit and watch the loss and suffering of human lives.
The fact is that as long as the Narc administration of President Kibaki continues to economically marginalize regions they consider of less political importance, then socio-economic disparities will continue to disunite the country. As long as the government continues with the former Moi ways of unqualified
political and tribal based appointments, these failures are what we should expect.
It would be foolhardy for anyone to expect the same team of Narc (or Narc-K) leadership to change it's ways and offer responsible and equitable governance beyond 2007.
This administration needs to understand that the pubic has learnt their dubious ways of attempting to hoodwink wananchi by cosmetic after-the-fact efforts. While the President is feasting on holiday with a few elected and privileged leaders, no serious attempts at swiftly responding to a disaster is taking place with
the urgency deserved.
What glares prominently instead, is the denial of basic services through politically calculated disparity schemes. The President and his inept ministers must be warned that wining and dining
with already rejected MP's (whom he has leashed), is not synonymous with scoring electoral votes.
Kenya's Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development has failed to articulate and prioritize a comprehensive livestock development policy. While cosmetic exercises for unsuspecting eyes have been put in place such as the recent highly trumpeted revival of Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), a closer look reveals
a trend of gross deceit purely aimed at achieving political mileage.
The KMC "revival exercise" had a paltry allocation of Sh 250 million ( $ 3 million) from this year's budget. Just stop there and think whether that is sufficient input to revamp & run the entire KMC (notwithstanding it's currently limited revenue) or just a public relations exercise meant to hoodwink the public.
The Livestock sector contributes about 11% of the GDP and employs a substantial portion of the agriculture labour force. You don't have to be an expert to realize that KMC's need for replacement of obsolete, rusty machinery and equipment obviously requires significant input and not just cosmetic changes- Input running into billions, which could have been met by just a portion of the billions looted through Anglo-Leasing and other corruption scams. There needs to be KMC plants spread all across the pastoralist areas and not just Athi River. We can thus conclude that the paltry amount allocated in the name "reviving" KMC is just a cosmetic campaign soundbite aimed at the ears of gullible pastoralist voters.
Pastoralists and the rest of the country must take note whether anything significant will be done to prevent future epidemic outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever, or whether the responsiblity would be ignored with aim of attracting foreign charitable response(s) after significant loss of human & animal lives.
The politics of clouding real development efforts with deceptive public relations exercises must be exposed once and for all. Must we be rocket scientists to realize when deception and marginalization is occuring right infront of our eyes?
Kenyans long woke from sleep and are readily waiting to consign this so called Narc-K government to the political dustbin not later than December 29th, this year. We shall not tire from highlighting disparities and ineptitude, nor should the nation tire from firing inept, corrupt, tribalistic and pro-marginalization governments, in successive fashion.
The nation yearns for an all inclusive, nationalistic and genuinely reformist government which responds to disasters anywhere in the nation and not just in selected places.
unedited.
Job.
