Press Release
The ongoing strike of the medical
practitioners and nurses is now entering its second week, leaving innocent
patients to die unattended in all public hospitals. The main objective behind
the strike, is to compel the government to implement the 2013 accord to pay the
doctors their outstanding arrears plus 300% of their basic salary increment.
The Islamic political party Hizb ut Tahrir / Kenya, would like to expound on
the followings:
That it is now as clear as
midsummer sky that Kenya has become a strikes relaying country amongst the
public workers. This sad situation is quite humiliating to any government which
claims to cater for the wellbeing of its people; yet it does not care for its
own citizens who are heavily burdened with taxes; while leaving them to suffer
in public hospitals by denying them their basic right to medical attention.
The medical sector just
like any public sector in all the capitalist regimes is not adequately taken
care of. Instead it is ever neglected since it is not the objective of these
capitalist governments to take care of the peoples’ welfare but that of a
certain bunch of influential and affluent only. This is the essence and
quiddity of the capitalist politicians whether in ruling or opposition,
whenever they fall ill, they squander no time to fly abroad in search of better
and advanced medical treatment! At the same time they don’t bother about the
wellbeing of the workers, depriving their citizens of medicines. On the other
hand, they embezzle billions of public money for their respective political parties’
campaign in an endeavor to win elections. Consequently, the public hospitals face
dearth of medicines and scarcity of nurses.
We would like to kindly
emphasize here that, capitalism does not only oppress the small scale workers
and laborers, it has gone too far by turning benefit to be the only criteria of
man’s actions. This criterion is to blame for auctioning man’s life for the
sake of monetary gain. The doctors and other workers, still even after asking
for lucrative salaries, they persistently ask for bribes from the patients in
order to offer them nice treatment. This situation has generally turned
hospitals under the yoke of the capitalist system to be a death trap.
We would like to emphasize
that medication is one of the basic needs for the public which needs grave and
serious attention. This service should not be treated like privilege or favor;
instead it is an obligation upon the government to offer it to the citizens.
This is precisely what the Islamic ruling system looks at the issue of medical,
by compelling the ruler/caliphate to directly supervise its function since it
is one of the rights of the citizens. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) says: «الإِمَامُ
رَاعٍ وَهُوَ وَمَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ» “The
ruler is a shepherd and accountable for his subjects”.
Shabani Mwalimu
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Kenya
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