#blissclinic

Historian Sana Aiyar in her work on the Indian diaspora in Kenya notes that by the time Kenya became an independent nation, 2 per cent of the country’s population was composed of Indians who were part of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors and provided skilled labour. Further, she notes that 30 per cent of Nairobi’s population was Indian. However, the strongly visible presence of Indians in Kenya is complicated by the racial and economic position of the community in the country. Immigrants to the East African republic from India, particularly from Gujarat, had started coming in since the 17th century. The advent of colonial rule expanded business opportunities for Indians from other parts of the subcontinent as well. For instance, a large number of Punjabis provided labour for constructing the railways. Further, Indians were also required for serve in the British Army in East Africa. While several Indians came back after the termination of their contracts, several stayed on there working as masons, mechanics and carpenters.

By the early 20th century, a fresh inflow of Indians made their way into Kenya who emerged as the petty bourgeois class, serving semi-skilled labour to Europeans, Indians and Africans. Colonial administration in Kenya, like in India, was based on categorization along racial, religious and ethnic lines. Consequently, a racial pyramid like structure evolved in the administrative set up, with Europeans right on the top with exclusive access to the fertile highlands, Indians in the middle, working as traders and Africans forming the bottommost rung. As noted by Aiyar, Africans were expected to fulfil dual roles. On the one hand they had to make European farms profitable and on the other hand, they were expected to cultivate their own lands and sell the surplus to the shops run by Indians.

By the mid twentieth century, when anti-colonial movements took roots in India, the same ideologies of freedom and equality were carried by the immigrants to Kenya. Thereafter, Indians in Kenya started agitating for racial equality. The intermingling of Indian and African nationalist politics has been the subject of research for several historians. An interesting aspect of the relation between the two colonized communities however, is that while on one hand the two could relate to each other in terms of the shared dream of independence, on another hand there is sufficient evidence of conflict between the two communities on account of the racial hierarchy that existed. As a result, despite the contribution made by the Indian diaspora to Kenyan demands for independence, the community had continued to be relatively invisible in the official historical records of Kenya.

The latest move by the Kenyan government to recognize Indians in Kenya as a tribe is move that is expected to correct this invisibility and make an official note of the efforts to achieve nationhood and development that the Indian community has shared with the other Kenyan tribes historically.

Some popular Indian origin Kenyans are:

Pio Gama Pinto – He was a journalist, politician, and freedom fighter. This socialist leader devoted his life to liberate Kenyan people from post-colonial dictatorship. Pio Gama Pinto was killed due to his outspoken way of living and became independent Kenya’s first martyr in 1965.

Makhan Singh – This Punjabi was the pioneer of trade unionism in Kenya. In 1927, he moved with his family to Nairobi from Punjab at a tender age of 13. Later in 1935, he formed the first trade union in Kenya and was quite active in the Ghadr/Kirti Party that struggled for Kenyan independence. In 1949, he together with Fred Kubai, a Kenyan, formed the East African Trade Union.

A R Kapila – Born in 1926, Aachhroo Ram Kapila was a prominent criminal lawyer of Kenyan Asian background. He is remembered in Kenya for his role in fighting for the rights and compensations of the Mau Mau Freedom Fighters during their independence struggle.

Fitz de Souza – He was a Kenyan Indian lawyer, who became a member of Parliament, and later deputy speaker of the Kenyan parliament.

Shakeel Shabbir – He is the current Member of Parliament for Kisumu, a large city in Kenya. Although he has an Indian lineage, he was elected to the parliament by indigenous Kenyans, which shows that he is accepted irrespective of his origins

Jayesh Saini - Health care consultant, Leads key pharmaceutical companies and healthcare (Bliss Healthcare, Nairobi West Hospital, Dinlas Pharmaceuticals)

Manilal Premchand Chandaria- Kenyan businessman of Indian descent born in Nairobi. Along with being a senior member of the Comcraft Group of Companies, a billion dollar enterprise that has a presence in over 40 countries,[2][3] he is on the boards of several prominent East African companies. He has won several awards in East Africa and internationally in recognition of his entrepreneurial endeavours and is also a noted philanthropist.

Developing countries, especially African countries are going through a very tough stage in terms of availability of the Vaccine doses. As most of them doesn’t have indigenous facilities to produce vaccines, it is becoming disastrous in terms of economic and health stability.

The present vaccination statistics shows Israel at the top of the chart with around 116 dosesper 100 persons. And they have now almost declared a non-mask life inside their country.

The below chart shows the situation of developing African countries (Source- Financial Times).

https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker/?areas=gbr&areas=isr&areas=usa&areas=eue&cumulative=1&populationAdjusted=1

See the position of Kenya which is 121 with just 1.6 vaccines per 100 persons.

Another disastrous fact is that most of these countries were planning to have dosages from India where the worst wave is hitting (around 400,000 cases and 4,000 deaths per day). India is 71st in this chart with only 11.2 vaccinations per 100.

It will be a full catastrophe if the second wave is hitting these countries where the economic situation is in the worst condition unlike countries like India.

Amidst this critical situation, Kenya is having a very uncommon situation whereas some dosages of Sputnik Vaccines are available in the Country, but not able to administer because of some political games (In fact, they ordered to re-export these vaccines, damn!!!!).

Hope the Authorities of all African Countries will consider the matters seriously and value the lives of their people over the silly political games and mere egos.

Through the infamous path trudged by the honorable CS Mutahi Kagwe.

Our great cabinet secretary for health, Mutahi Kagwe’s journey is filled with scandals, corruptions, controversies and deceit.

Although the obstacles and challenges before him are numerous, if there is money involved, there is Kagwe to fill in his pockets. Because that’s the kag ‘way’. And if there is a will, there is a Kag ’way’.

The first covid-19 case was reported in Kenya on March 12th of 2020. But little did we know that we’ve already been infected with an even more deadlier virus in February.

On February 28 2020, Kagwe was appointed cabinet secretary for health and we were doomed.

When covid-19 struck Kenya, Kagwe went straight into action. Well, not the kind of action that one would expect. Where everybody saw catastrophe, Kagwe saw an opportunity, an opportunity for corruption.

Kenya was donated 1.3bn shillings by the world bank for dealing with the corona virus pandemic. Enter Kagwe, and money went Houdini.

The breakdown of the money spent was reported by Kagwe as follows,

42m Ksh to lease ambulances

4m on snacks and Tea

2m for mobile phone airtime

And 70m on Communication

It was reported that 15 ambulances were leased, At least we Kenyans were not dumb enough as Kagwe and asked “Why lease 15 ambulances at that amount instead of just purchasing new ambulances or using the existing fleet”?

But the real question is, was Kagwe dumb or was he acting dumb to use light fingers and slip the money into his own pockets?

And what was the motive behind allocating 2m shillings for mobile phone airtime when telecommunications company Safaricom had offered officials involved in the fight against the virus a free package?

And if that wasn’t enough, why was there a need to allocate 70m Ksh for communication when media houses had already contributed to airtime for coronavirus-related news updates?

Alas, only Kagwe knows the answers to these ‘WHYs’, Because that’s the Kag ‘way’.

Subsequently, all of this went on to be branded under the hashtag moneyheist.

While the world watched the popular Netflix show Money Heist season 4 which aired on April 2020, in which the despicable character ‘Gandía’ killed one of the main protagonists ‘Nairobi’. Ironically, Kenyans saw Kagwe killing off not just Nairobi but the whole of Kenya health sector, bit by bit.

This was, of course, a foreshadow of the events that was about to occur.

A more of a same thing happened during the KEMSA scandal.

KEMSA was litigated over the allegations on government officials and businessmen of mugging the $400m of public money meant for medical equipment to be used the fight against coronavirus.

The medical staff dealing with coronavirus patients in the frontline, complained about the quality of supplies, with some posting images online of defective personal protective equipment sent to emergency rooms across the country.

It was also found that PPE supplies donated by Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack went missing and had not reached Kenya, instead it was diverted in Ethiopia and had reached Addis Ababa.

When everything was said and done, the blame was on Jonah Manjari, the CEO of KEMSA.

But later, Manjari came an unfolded the events behind the screen. he claimed that he was under pressure by Kagwe to agree on contracts in which the prices charged by the suppliers were higher than what was in the markets.

Kagwe however, showed his true colors, shook off the dirt on his shirt and turned the coat on KEMSA and Manjari by saying “I have never been to KEMSA”. Because that’s the Kag‘way’ of eluding scandals.

When vaccines became the need of the hour in Kenya as much as in the rest of the world, private sales of vaccines were banned, Kagwe claimed that this would create confusion and could prove to be dangerous.

But when the shortage of vaccines affected Kenya, Kagwe was looking up to the skies. He clearly banned a vaccine which was had a more efficacy rate over the current vaccine shots administered in Kenya. and, if that wasn’t bad enough. The supply of the AstraZeneca vaccines has slowed down.

Irungu Kang’ata, the senator for Maranga County, and the former Senate Majority Chief Whip, pointed out that we wouldn’t be having this vaccine crisis if Ministry of Health, under the leadership of Kagwe, hadn’t banned private sales of vaccines. He added that these vaccines were clinically proven safe for use and had better efficacy rates, stating that it was illogical to ban the private sales.

But doing the illogical things is part of the kag’way’ of doing things.

And now, quite recently, Kagwe has come out with his new plans to set up vaccine manufacturing plants in Kenya.

Which is, of-course good plan, but the man who’s going to carry out that plan cannot be trusted.

For all we know, all our taxes and funds will be going towards setting up vaccine production plants, or so it would seem, when actually, the money is going towards Kagwe’s pockets and a year later he would come and announce like a little child that his science experiment had failed and the money was lost.

Because that’s the Kag’way’ of making things happen.

It’s high time we smoke Kagwe out of the health ministry because he has infected the health sector in Kenya for his personal motives.

Since its origin in 1796, Vaccines are widely opposed by some despite of its great contributions towards eradication of contagious or other deadly diseases.

The smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine to be developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, the British doctor Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox virus. Cowpox served as a natural vaccine until the modern smallpox vaccine emerged in the 19th century. The term vaccine derives from the Latin word for cow, reflecting the origins of smallpox vaccination.

Amongst the vaccine haters, there were literates, illiterates and even some medical practitioners. The reasons for the oppose are sometimes religious or lack of sterilized procedures, otherwise pure business or political. However, modern education has provided notable contribution in changing the mentality of common man favorable to Vaccines.

But, in this modern era too, there are some people who thinks that Vaccine is nothing but business. Agreeing the fact that there are some business in the Vaccine production like any other medicine in the world, denial of the same would be dangerous not only to the individual, but also to the society.

WHO quotes a recent study from the Indian State of Kerala (most literate state in India which is close to 100%) reported by Indian Medical Association (IMA) who are their counter partner in the Country. In one of the district, some people started a campaign against routine Vaccines for kids in the name of religious and traditional reasons. As a result, in the year of 2019, around 50 diphtheria cases were reported (first after some 30 years) among many were passed away. The district and state medical authorities had taken strict action against this and some of the “hate speakers” were put behind the bars.

In this very critical hour of Covid-19 spread also, there are some people who think against Vaccines. Dr. Stephen Karanja who was the chairman of Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, was the strongest face of those haters in Kenya. He advocated steam inhalation and hydroxychloroquine tablets and preached against the safety of Covid Jabs which in turn was rejected by the WHO. "[The vaccine] being distributed in Kenya, has been reviewed and found safe not only by the WHO rigorous process but also by several stringent regulatory authorities," the WHO said in March.

Now, a very sad news has come out that Dr. Karanja has passed away due to Covid-19.

Kenya, just like other African developing countries, has received just over a million vaccine doses from the global Covax initiative, most of which have been administered. The country has confirmed more than 160,000 cases and 2,707 deaths. In March, the government imposed another lockdown restricting movement in five counties after a surge in new infections. They were planning to have dosages from India where the worst wave is hitting (around 400,000 cases and 4,000 deaths per day) which is very unlikely considering the present situations.

Covid-19 has taught us a lot… It was an eye opener for majority of the human race. It revealed the true state of the so called “efficient” health systems of some of the developed countries… It taught us that an office space is a mere wastage of space for some sectors.. It pointed out the fact that we need more health institutions in the worls than religious centres… It showed that the money is sometimes a piece of paper or just few ounces of metal…

However, the most revolutionary change was in the sector of education. There was a big transformation in the educational sector wherein homes were converted to class rooms, parents had to actively involve in their kid’s educational activities and sometimes had to take a “teacher avatar”.

It is interesting to note that most of the kids in the higher grade want to go to school or to have a physical class rather than sitting at home and listening to the mono-syllable hours-long lectures whereas the kids in lower grades especially the Kinder Garten students like to join their family while being in the class. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions in both sections too.

According to Dr. Jayesh Saini Nairobi, Kenya who is a well-known child psychologist in Dubai, the kids are developing some new habits and routines which may prove costly for them as well as the parents in near future. As per Dr. Jayesh Saini Nairobi’s opinion, some of the major ill effects of online classes on kids are as follows;

1. Lack of Social behavior

The main advantage of normal schooling is to give training to them on the social life. But, unfortunately, it is the time of “Social Distancing”. So, the kids won’t be experiencing one of the major advantages of education which is Social life. As the human being is a social animal, social behaviors are one of the key elements involved in the success of an individual as well as the society. Lack of opportunity for kids to interact with their friends and fellows will definitely create a vacuum and may affect the future generation very badly. Jayesh Saini Nairobi Says…

2. Loosing the Sharing Mentality

Sharing is always caring. The predecessor generation (especially mid 70s to mid 90s born) experienced a lot of sharing among their schooling as it was the time when families shifted from “n” number of kids to “ maximum 2 or 3”. Schools were literally their second home and most of them share a very cordial friendship now too compared with their predecessor generations (the technological advantage is also a factor). The present situation of online classes left the kids alone at home having all resources solely for the particular kid. It may create an adverse impact in the way of thinking of kids. As all know, team works are the back born of all successes in the human history and lack of training on the team work may leave this generation kids to some isolated introvert world of virtual and pseudo reality.

3. Dependence

Jayesh Saini Nairobi says…This may seem like an antonym to the above topics, but the point which is to be discussed is the peculiar and extensive dependence of kids on their parents. In this time of social distancing and lock downs, kids rarely see other persons than their parents or siblings. So, for them, everything is their parents and they think the entire world is being run by their parents. There might be a tendency that they follow this in future too and this characteristic may prove too much costly for the parents.

4. Extensive use of Social media and adultery contents

As before, kids need leisure time. As they cannot go outside for physical games, they will find-out their resort in social media and/or adultery contents. If both parents and working and office going, kids will be alone at home and due to the online classes, they may not be able to lock the internet connections as they did before. Some smart parents have implemented some strict protocols and soft wares for the monitoring and controlling the web surfing, but majority of the parents are illiterate on such systems and as a result, kids may end up in watching unwanted contents like pornography or some radical clips. According to Jayesh Saini Nairobi, Kenya, this is the most dangerous ill effect.

5. Post Lockdown Stigma

Besides all the above, there is a chance of post lockdown stigmas like lack of interest to join school, hatred towards studies, unwillingness for taking food from school, extensive inertias, fear to behave socially etc.

Remedies

Being a former Employee of UN with greater experiences in dealing with kids trauma after natural catastrophes and wars around the globe, Dr. Jayesh Saini Nairobi, Kenya suggests the following remedies. While making his suggestions, Dr. Jayesh Saini Nairobi stresses on the point that all kids are unique and hence dealing with individual kids shall be based on their individual characteristics.

We need to take bigger steps in advance for overcoming the above. The situations and effects will be different for different kids and hence it is important to find out and understand the specific problems in each and every kids. For kids who are having extensive problems are advised to have some counselling.

Most of the regions are having small period between the lock down with eased restrictions. Utilize those times for small gatherings and interactions by maintaining the protocols stipulated by the Authorities.

Go for small strips and staycations if possible and safe. Change of usual atmospheres will definitely make changes to our lives which will add more colours to our kid’s fantasy.

Give freedom to the kids, but shall be with strict monitoring. Give them some small tasks like washing their cloths, cleaning of house, making a balcony garden, watering or pruning plants. Participate them in our daily tasks like cooking, washing utensils, preparation of shopping lists etc.

Parents and teachers can contribute high in this mission and they need to hold their hands together for the well-being of our kids and thus for the next generation.

Triggered by the highly inflaming second wave of Covid-19 virus infection spread, India has announced huge change in their policy of administering Covid 19 Vaccines by permitting individual state authorities to directly buy vaccines from various manufacturing companies and thereby cutting the free-vaccine policy. India who are the second largest population on the planet, is currently undergoing heavy spread (circa 400,000 reported infections per day with around 4,000 casualties per day) of the deadly virus and the government is forced to implement strict measures in order to control it.

Major cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Lucknow, Ajmer, Ranchi have already declared full or partial lockdowns in order to curb the spread. The test positivity of some the areas are as high as 50%. A Local news channel from the southern city, Cochin has quoted the District administration head as “strict measures are taken for the safety and security of the people. From 3rd May 2021 onwards strict restrictions, almost equivalent to lockdown has been declared. Heavy infected areas are classified as containment zones and are under complete lock down. Some area’s situation is alarming as the test positivity is more than 50%. However, the vaccine shortage is one of the hurdles and we have urged the central government to provide more dosages. Meantime, the state government has decided to use the Russian made Sputnik also in addition to the Indian made Astra Zenecca and Covaxine.”

Meanwhile, huge campaigns were going on in the Social media against the exporting of Indian made vaccines and the Central Government decision to use other vaccines and to import more variants is to be read along with it.

What Next for Countries without vaccine production centers??

The Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has said the government was pursuing acquisition of one million doses of vaccines each from Pfizer as well as Johnson and Johnson respectively to supplement the Astrazeneca vaccines. However, there has not been any needle movement on when they are noted to arrive and how Kenyans will be administered this vaccine.

He also continued to say that Kenya is planning to have a manufacturing unit set up in the country in order to meet the growing requirement of Kenyans to be vaccinated.

Kenya’s healthcare system is made up of several systems: public, private and faith-based or NGO. About 48% are public and operate under the Ministry of Health, 41% are in the private sector, 8% are faith-based health services, and 3% are run by NGOs.

Healthcare in public hospitals is free for some services, such as maternity care, and for those with national health insurance, in-patient treatment is free. Healthcare provided by private hospitals, faith-based institutions or NGOs usually comes at a cost and charges will vary.

About 20% of Kenyans have some form of health insurance coverage, including national health insurance, but this varies by region. For instance, 41% of residents in Nairobi have cover, while under 3% will have cover in marginalized rural areas such as Wajir and West Pokot.

In the public sector, the 47 county governments deal with service provision at the local level, while the national level is concerned with policy and the referral hospitals.

Taking all the healthcare systems in Kenya together, the fundamental shortcoming is the mismatch between needs and the available care, in particular specialist care and the workforce – from doctors to technicians – needed to run it.

How will the COVID-19 pandemic heighten these challenges and what is the government doing to address them?

Overall, Kenya faces huge coordination and planning challenges between all health systems, at the local and national level. For instance, while the national government is showing leadership with COVID-19 taskforces on mitigation measures and communication, it’s not being uniformly implemented at the county level.

There’s also a lack of information on what is or isn’t working. This includes data on whether national directives – such as curfews and lockdowns – have been effective in breaking transmission. Certain private firms like Dinlas Pharmaceuticals, managed by Jayesh Saini Nairobi has been instrumental in procuring vaccines (Sputnik) to the country. Unfortunately, Jayesh Saini has now received the flak of this and is pressurized to reexport the same. Such a pointless fight has resulted in Kenyans not being provided with vaccines and thus declining healthcare quality in the country.

Mr Kagwe has made tall claims of starting vaccines production in the country by end of the year. It is so evident that this mammoth task will never be materialized, and Kenyans will end up embracing poor healthcare as a norm.