Wamalwa s death rekindles health debate

It is also raising questions regarding the tendency by politicians to prefer foreign hospitals for ailments that could be handled locally at a lesser cost to the taxpayers without undermining the patient's right to choice and privacy.

Wamalwa died on August 23 at Royal Free Hospital, London, after battling with a series of ill-health since his appointment as Kenya's eight vice-president in January this year.

Indeed, the issue of the VP's death is now emerging as the biggest test to NARC's professed demeanour of transparency and accountability to the electorate,just a few months after the government found itself in a similar situation regarding the state of health of president Mwai Kibaki that resulted from a road accident in the run-up to the 2002 elections.

To date, there are conflicting reports on whether the president is recovering or degenerating. Just like many questions were raised over the president's health including his capacity to govern the VP was for nearly two months, confined to a London hospital with nothing much coming from the officialdom, other than he was on the recovery path.

Apparently, the hush-hush policy over the health status of top leadership, that has persisted in the three successive governments since 1963 Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi is likely to continued with through the Mwai Kibaki government, even as more and more citizens yearn for greater transparency in virtually all government activities.

Indeed, it took wild rumours in the alternative press and signs of political jostling and re-alignments for the government to attempt to put the VP's health in proper perspective in a manner that is still considered wanting in some quarters.

It was only after that that a picture of the VP relaxing with a government official and one of his doctors, was released to the media to assuage fears that the VP was too indisposed to continue performing his duties as the principal assistant to the president.

It did not help matters much that leading government figures who went to visit Wamalwa in

London, deliberately decided to mislead the nation over his health status by painting a rosy picture purporting to be speaking from the authority of medical facts.

It later turned out that the former VP was much worse than the nation was led to believe, even as those who were close to him spread word of his imminent demise.

Suggestions, though bellied, are now beginning to emerge that leaders aspiring for higher position ought to undergo proper medical checks to avoid the current

NARC debacle.

The current constitutional provisions only demand that those aspiring for top leadership, including the presidency, be of sound mind. But that did not stop former Ford-Asili presidential candidate, Kenneth Matiba, who was in poor state of health after suffering a stroke, and the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who was perceived by many as having

been senile, from contesting the presidency in 1992.

Political realities of the time was that the disqualification of the two on constitutional basis,

could have led to major political backlash.

Still, intense pressure from the public for accurate information on the VP's health status during his hospitalisation, has also also brought into focus the civil service rules, especially regarding the period in which the government can go underwriting hospital

bills of its officers.

Instead, the government has responded by sending one ministerial delegation after another at an unspecified expense. The question now arising is why should government

ministers be allowed to continue flying to London to visit the VP at the expense of tax payers only for them to repeat the same line as hospital authorities?

While the health of the country's top brass borders on national security at most, past experience have shown that lack of an official explanation acceptable to the public may end being more damaging as wild speculation encroaches on political stability.

For example, Wamalwa's two months in hospital sparked off major political re-alignments which analysts contend could have been avoided had the government been forthright in its briefings.

Notably, lack of crystal guidelines on leaders health has led to a situation where politicians cling to power even when they cannot perform their duties be it on health or integrity grounds, an event analysts now fear could lead colossal loss of man hours, besides paying salaries for non-performers.

In the private sector for instance, employees are retired on health grounds on a regular basis, making them pursue healthier lifestyles when contrasted to politicians. In the private sector there is also a limit as to how long the employer can fund the hospitalisation of a bed-ridden employee, a period that ranges from three to six months.

In view of the manner in which the government handled the former VP's health, Kenyans are left to wonder whether the NARC government has something to hide on the capacity of its leaders to rule, just like Kanu before it.

Till now, no Kenyan can conclusively say whether the former president Daniel Moi was ever indisposed. What is really needed is an elaborate system through which the taxpayer, being their employer, can keep tab on health of their leaders.

Kenyans are yet to unequivocally know, whether former vice-president, George Saitoti, was actually poisoned in 1990 at the height of the clamour for political pluralism.