Every mother, in her secret heart of hearts, wants her daughter, imaginary and real, to marry a doctor, an engineer, an architect and, where desperate times require desperate measures, a lawyer. (Only mothers from a certain mountainous region dream of hitching their daughters' wagons to trains pulled by anyone in the political field.) But always at the top of that list if potential suitable suitors for her daughter is the doctor. It is therefore, moot to take doctors for the elite among the elite, and their place in society is secure for as long as they do not appear as hapless ne'er-do-wells without a penny to their names.
The desperate strike by members of the medical profession against what they see as a haphazard devolution of the health sector is not doing doctors any favours. The few who have made the horrific mistake of being seen on TV exercising their right to peaceably assemble and petition their government have often displayed traits last seen when a much vilified profession went on strike: city council "workers." If indeed it were doctors we witnessed making asses of themselves, the medical professional is about to suffer a steep discount in the eligible bachelor sweepstakes.
This blogger wishes not to make light of the plight of doctors in the public service. frequently they are treated by the mandarins in the Ministry of Health like bullocks to be worked to the bone. They receive not what they are owed, whether it is in the form of respect or more pecuniary rewards. They are ignored and treated with suspicion if not outright hostility by the millions of patients they see every year. And when they find an hour or two of free time, they discover that everyone who accosts them has their hand out demanding a handout. Woe unto the doctor who will not put his hand in his pocket or loosen the strings around his wallet.
Therefore, it feels a bit unfair to pile on the doctors when they are down, but needs must. It is one thing to down tools (hand up the stethoscope?) and keep away from places of employment over one dispute or the other. It is quite another to dress like the riffraff in the former local authorities, wield ill-written posters and generally behave like Kogalo or Ingwe fans out to prove a point. It augurs poorly that the men and women millions entrust their lives to are incapable of stringing together a cogent English statement to make a point about the indispensability of their services in the firmament that is the Kenya Vision 2030 blue print. It raises significant doubts that these people have successfully charted the roiled waters of the 6 years of medicine required to equip them with the absolutely necessary skills for life-saving. If they insist on carrying on like council workers or councillors, for that matter, it is a matter of time before mothers think twice before letting their delicate flowers anywhere near the putrefaction emanating from that particular cast of characters.
It is not enough to be right about your rights. If you want to ensure that the powers-that-be listen and heed your demands, you must not descend to the depths enjoyed by those who would be your social inferiors. Doctors, whether they like or not, are the elite of the elite, respected because it takes time and dedication to become the professionals we all believe them to be. It is reckless and irresponsible for the Kenyan version of the medical profession to behave as if they do not have an obligation to behave professionally even in the middle of their extended dispute with their government. It is time Mothers' Unions told the doctors of Kenya out on strike to Style Up!
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