Professor Anyang’ Nyong’o and his Serena lunches have been much in the news lately. That he has the good of the country at heart in seeking to midwife a universal health care scheme is not in any doubt. It is an old, open ‘secret’ that people prosper when governed by an enlightened elite rather than under the disastrous, ‘representative’ system known as democracy. Ask the subjects of the Sultanate of Brunei and their counterparts in Oman and the good citizens of the principalities of Liechtenstein and Monaco. You’d be run out of town if your democratic instincts, as we understand that word, dared to find expression within their borders. The good professor has been a democrat of long standing. But he knows very well that a good shepherd does not consult the sheep on their preferred grazing grounds. Engaging in a spot of hubris en route to making his point is his prerogative. If such deeds and utterances are called to account that will be his case to answer. That universal health care is sorely needed by the citizens of this nation is a no-brainer. We have all seen the medical notices in the dailies, put in by desperate, at-the-end-of-their-tether citizens, asking for financial assistance from people who are essentially strangers. Others have been forced to sell off their precious parcels of land to cater for emergency medical bills that threaten to render them destitute.
The brigade that is busy shouting down Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o totally misses the point. This is not about the professor and his lunches. He can obviously afford to dine pretty much wherever he likes, every day of the year, should he so choose. He sits at the high table by virtue of sticking his neck out when it mattered. His record as a democracy campaigner is unblemished. Anyone begrudging him the delicacies served in five star hostelries should instead work towards attaining their goals and actualising their dreams. That the professor later hitched his political wagon to the Raila juggernaut is neither here nor there. Sometimes to serve, one must needs sacrifice something. Recognising too that there can be only one rooster in the yard is a common sense piece of wisdom. A purely moralistic leader is as much use as a priceless Van Gogh to a starving man on an island. Unpopular but potentially beneficial projects should be rammed through regardless of the wailing beneficiaries. Professor Anyang’ Nyongo’s ideals as a social democrat may long be out of the window, but this is by no means criminal or even reprehensible. The benefits accruing to the populace under the proposed scheme will remove the burden of worry from people’s minds. Some of those championing workers’ rights can easily afford the fees charged by ‘5 star’ hospitals. The majority of the loudly moaning workers would be reduced to paupers if even the simplest of medical operations were deemed necessary for a family member. Most domestic tensions of a financial nature are brought about by unexpected and stratospheric medical bills. In most developed countries for instance, the first thing new employees are keen on, save the salary of course, is the in-house medical scheme. Where this is deemed inadequate an employee would rather seek less lush pastures that have a solid scheme in place.
So push the scheme through, prof, the rabble-rousing notwithstanding. Even Michuki was initially met with unreasoning resistance.
In the meantime, bon appétit!
