Kenya's Dubai? Let's see.

This blogger has done everything in his quite considerable power to avoid paying a visit to a health facility managed by any of the ministries, departments or agencies of the Government of Kenya. Of course, this is only in the recent past when he has had the opportunity to earn a living and spend his own money. He has opted for snake-oil peddled by leading institutions in the private sector; they have not cured this blogger of all that ails his body, but they have done what they have done with a certain level of professionalism that is sadly lacking in the public sector.

But this blogger has recently been compelled to change tack, once again. It is becoming increasingly certain that the professionalism that attracted him to the private sector is slowly being snuffed out in the mad rush to empty this blogger's wallet. The pushing and jostling - metaphorical, of course - has become simply nauseating. The lengths to which private sector providers of healthcare will go to pick this blogger's pockets have taken a turn for the mercenary. Therefore, this blogger has made the half-hearted decision to reconsider his revulsion at the public sector.

But because it is a brand new dawn, this blogger intends to make his decisions based on certain metrics. Obviously, any healthcare facility under the increasingly incompetent thumbs of the Nairobi Governor is out. This blogger doesn't give two shits about the millions the governor has poured into Pumwani Maternity Hospital; had a similar amount been poured into the Ofafa Jericho Health Centre, these sentiments would most likely be rosier. Kiambu is out too; its reputation for gangsterism inspires a dread of visiting a healthcare facility that might be in hock to a mafia don.

Kajiado is not an easy option to make, but mostly because the only thing that seems to give it a name is that it is on the way to the Namaga Border. Border towns have grave public health challenges, which in this side of the border usually means TB and HIV/AIDS. That leaves Machakos.

Dr Alfred Mutua, the governor, is not a healthcare profession, as the Constitution puts, but a publicity hound. Despite all that, his moves in the public healthcare sector have engendered a level of trust for an elected official that demands testing. So this blogger intends to head for the previously much loathed Machakos District Hospital and find out whether his lowly NHIF card will afford him some measure of medical civility. Dear reader, do not hold your breath though. When this blogger was a sprog, the administrators at that facility demanded bribes even from children without a cent to their names before agreeing to treat them. But, Mr Mutua has done a good job of selling Masaku. It is time to see whether it really has the potential to become the Dubai of Kenya.