BY DOLLARMAN FATINATO AND PURITY NTHIANA
COVID19 restrictions notwithstanding, it’s clear that politicians are already hitting the road running seeking to secure their seat in the coming general election. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has also announced the scheduled mass voter registration.
The Elections season marks the onset of a once in five years’ opportunity for Kenyans to exercise their civil right and responsibility of deciding who deserves to lead them at the various positions from the county to the national level.
Kenyans must open their eyes now more than before and see the linkage between health and politics.
Politicians continuously formulate or influence public policy. Their power and ideology underpin the policy landscape and influence people’s health. The absence of a politics of health in the current political outfits where major divides are presenting to Kenyans promises of economic empowerment, unity and infrastructure development while sidelining the conversation around health despite the lessons learnt from the COVID19 pandemic.
The ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency should play a major role in shaping the political agenda in 2022. The pandemic has highlighted gaps in access to affordable care that already existed, the loss of jobs, income, and health insurance across the country exacerbated this problem.
In an effort to stem the casualties of the covid-19 pandemic, politicians have increasingly desperately turned to public health officials, doctors, and academics for solutions and scientific legitimacy.
According to National and County Health Budget Analysis Fiscal Year 2018-19 the proportion of the combined discretionary public budget allocated to health was 9.2 per cent, falling far below commitment made by Kenya in the 2001 Abuja declaration target of 15 per cent. This clearly demonstrates a lack of political goodwill for over a decade now. The government should fully roll out and implement the obligation.
For the 2022 election, healthcare should be one of the most pivotal topics in politics in the days leading to the ballot. With COVID-19 vaccines being administered across the country and a long economic recovery anticipated, issues around healthcare investment, access and affordability should be at the forefront.
The pandemic and the outcome of the fourth coming election will shape health policy and decisions for months and years to come. Kenya has been spending billions in initiatives that could wait, totally ignoring the fact that our hospitals are strained due to commodity stockouts. This is where our government misses the mark.
Kenyans must demand and politicians seeking support must be deliberate in demonstrating how their agenda and manifestos will lead to more effective health promotion strategy and policy, and to more realistic and evidence-based public health and health promotion practice.
Mr Fatinato is the Program Assistant at the Centre For the Study of Adolescence (CSA) and Miss Nthiana is a youth advocate at the Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa (NAYA Kenya)
