It is The End of The Road for Cartels in Ministry of Health As CS Kagwe is on The Onslaught

We must fight, fight and fight harder in curtailing the efforts of the corrupt in this country. This is the message that Kagwe has relayed to Kenyans on several occasions as he is in the process of ‘building a team of trusted people, who are against corruption’. Teamwork and a forthright spirit and heart are critical in this fight against corruption, and Kagwe is likely deliver a corrupt free Ministry of Health that has been for years run by cartels. Cartels that have infested and infected every sector of the country’s health care system.

When Kagwe joined the Ministry of Health, he chose not to turn a blind eye that the Ministry had an underlying problem which had overburdened the country’s health care system. This problem was, as he pointed out, corruption initiated by cartels who run the show at all levels including the management at Afya House. This has dearly cost the health of Kenyans from all walks of life including the old, young, children, women giving birth and the many who are ailing from conditions and diseases.

From time immemorial, various cartels have wreaked havoc in the Ministry of Health. These cartels have denied Kenyans the right to affordable medicine, free maternal healthcare, and even denied health care workers their much needed remuneration in some instances among other issues. Riddled with corruption the Ministry back in 2017 was denied a direct aid of $21 million dollars by the US government which had cited corruption reports and weakened accounting procedures within the Ministry. This weakened structure was deliberately created by cartels who were siphoning public funds from the Health Ministry. In this instance, Sh5 billion had disappeared which were sadly funds meant for free maternity care for the millions of Kenyan women who directly depended on it.

The scourge has ravaged the Ministry to the extent that hospitals are often left without basic health care equipment such as drugs of ENT equipment, to an artificial shortage of drugs and even just gloves. This has also denied health workers a chance to have an increased pay besides grappling with a lack of sufficient appropriate equipment to conduct short medical procedures and surgical operations. Over the past years, Kenyans have watched in disbelief of how patients have suffered in various county and public hospitals and indeed it is not that money for the requirements is unavailable but only that it  flows in the wrong hands of cartels  who feel no sense of moral obligation in ensuring Kenyans access and receive, affordable and quality healthcare.

However, the country should be optimistic as the cartels that have rocked the Ministry of Health shall indeed be dismantled. Health Cabinet Secretary has vowed to dismantle these cartels who are working also in collaboration with the Judiciary. With the ongoing war on corruption, CS Kagwe has the right backing from the government right from the President. It is business unusual as these cartels who have frustrated the country’s healthcare system will be uprooted from their hideouts.

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