This is Guka - Today I Will Be a Polite Grandpa, For Once.................

There’s is an epidemic sweeping this country that needs to be nipped in the bud. No, it is not HIV, Ebola or even malaria.

It is a silly negativity, a deep malaise characterised by endless criticism of our institutions of state, by our young. This disease seems to have permeated everywhere. Self-hate has become a fad, and making outrageous allegations with no basis, no iota of truth or even logic has become the norm.

Let me give you just two samples from today.

"If Ebola were to enter Kenya the speed of transmission would be fast. Just one sick person on a bus towards Nairobi could infect several hundred people along the journey, and when in the city they could infect thousands more. We are a nation totally unprepared to handle an epidemic. "
[I][B]@MortyTuumbo

“Let’s all pray , If Ebola strikes then Kenya sijui tutahamia wapi… most of our hospitals are just buildings with no medicines etc …
They are just an avenue for county govts to loot funds…public healthcare is long dead”[/B][/I]
@Shegaj

Take the comments of the first poster. Why would the spread of Ebola, were it to reach Kenya, be faster than say Sierra Leone or Liberia? How would one sick person infect several hundreds while confined to a bus? And how would they then infect thousands in the city? IN OTHER WORDS, WHAT EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MODEL ARE THESE OUTRAGEOUS ALLEGATIONS BASED ON?

Take the comments of the second poster. Kenya has one of the best health facilities in Africa, which is why our maternal mortality is among the lowest in the region. Our HIV care is excellent, and this year we may reach universal ARV access. We have no polio or measles (North America does!) because our vaccinations programmes are spot on. Outside SA we have the greatest number of ICU beds in sub-Saharan Africa. Our research outfit, KEMRI is a WHO-recognised Biosafety Level 4 facility. How can one then make the outrageous statement that our hospitals are “just an avenue for county govts to loot funds…public healthcare is long dead” when the same facilities attend to 90% of the population?

Where am I going with all this, you may ask.

Criticism is great for a developing country like Kenya. When the political elite is as corrupt as ours is, it is the duty of every other Kenyan to complain, rant and vent. If we left these thieves to their devices they would loot the whole country.

BUT, let these criticisms, rants, and vents be grounded in reality. Let’s not make up nonsense and then think we are making any meaningful contribution to the conversation. To be blunt, saying “Kenya is doomed”, “Kenya was better under the colonialists”, “Our public healthcare is long dead” endlessly, as I see some people here do, is lazy baboonish shit. It is meaningless. It’s Kajwang singing “mapambano” - basically thoughtless sloganeering. It is not very intelligent.

True, Kenya is in a bad way. We could be doing way, way, way better, and the way to do that is to make the right diagnoses to our problems so that we can make the right treatments.

Let me end with a fact that most of you blithely ignored the other day; the budgets of Uganda, Tanzania, and Burundi are together LESS than Kenya’s. There’s a very good reason for that, and one of them is not stupid posturing and meaningless debate.

Let’s have some respect for our country, even as we ask our leaders for more.

Asanteni.

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Na Kwa hayo machache Liwe Liwalo 2022

Weeeeeeeee, washa hiyo!

engineer, hio ni non negotiable, liwe liwalo

We have a country where people sometimes reason like a zero grazed cow. Ati for a citizen/cow to be productive the mkulima/government should bring you hay/napier grass.etc. Ndio utoe maziwa, whereas we should all be free range cows. Roam the plains far and wide look for food/work, pay your taxes(kamuliwa kidogo tu the rest ni yako) while the government provides with security and basic amenities to nurture you.

You old fellas who hold the managerial positions in this institutions have failed us. instead of expanding and create employment for youths, you are shrinking them and they eventually die. lakini sijasoma yote

Leo in Monday. No paybill manenos…but personally I find rants useless if they do not get to those who matter. The reason why I will never claim that Kenya is a banana country. But we do have low IQ banana peel leaders.

Let me ask just one question; how many youths are in Parliament or positions of power like MCAs, gavanas (the likes of Sang) etc? Hundreds. And they are some of the worst looters (NOT Sang). This buck-passing won’t get you anywhere…

[SIZE=2](The second stage in buck-passing is to say they learnt it from their elders, right?)[/SIZE]

So what are you going to do about it other than sit and whine?
You’re are young, full of creativity and vitality, use it!

soma yote halafu urudi.

Let’s appreciate what we have

Unfortunately, this part is very true. First, a good number of long-distance buses lack passenger manifests, and those that do rarely handle the information properly. We have seen road accident victims remain unidentified in mortuaries for weeks simply because a vehicle had no information about its passengers. Second, I would not be surprised if a health institution handled an Ebola incident casually without ever realizing what they are dealing with. We have all witnessed medical personnel make careless mistakes leading to fatalities sometimes. In the case of Ebola, you just need to miss one case to cause a substantial outbreak. Third, a poor Kenyan will avoid seeking treatment because they can hardly afford the cost and/or time. Such a patient will most certainly infect others before making it to a health facility. Finally, those who experience the real Kenya have good reasons to be pessimistic, unlike the slightly more privileged who can use their resources to shunt past challenging situations.

If real budget estimates (not inflated corrupt white elephants projects) are considered,Kenya’s budget is at much lower level
But as usual someone has to bark stupidly

:D:D:D is it related to Burundi? CouchP your rant is justified.

what?

signs of Ebola ni hemorrhage in every body opening, ni medic mgani hajui Hivo?shugulika na mortar and bricks please

I was speaking out of precaution not out of negativity but as warning that we need to be prepared. Just look how bad Cholera spread across Nairobi a few months ago affecting the high-end hotels.

Remember Ebola is spread by bodily fluids so If someone diarrheas and doesn’t wash his hands and goes to handle food he’ll have infected several hundred people, sitting in a mat with a sweaty person he’s infected more people, etc etc.

As Kenya stands today there’s no kind of public emergency system that would warn the public to beware of dangers during such epidemics.

In its final stages.

But in the beginning it may look like a cold making it very contagious as it moves with ease with a persons bodily fluids.

Your Op-Ed is spot on and I couldn’t agree more.

Incidentally, it’s not a Kenyan thing; I think it’s an African thing. I say so because for the last one month I have been engaged in some research on how African, social media users perceive their institutions. The results are alarming, if not depressing.

Africans speak very ill of their institutions, even those that are trying.

First, they have zero appreciation. You build them a tarmac road and some will say the road is of poor quality; others will say that it’s a wastage of money and the road should have remained un-tarmacked; others will even say that the government should have given them the money for personal use! Mark you, these are people who had no tarmac road all their lives!

Second, they are fond of giving biased, non-researched and completely untruthful information that has no basis whatsoever. You try to engage someone about their source of information and they start abusing you! You give them the facts about what has been done and what has not been done, but they won’t change their opinions. They want to stick with hearsay.

Sometimes you want to educate them and give them the real state of affairs, but it’s a lost battle! The level of ignorance is quite high.