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| Isiolo County: Governor and Isiolo County Commissioner Addressing The Media On Covid-19 Preparedness. Local Health Facilities Have Been Revamped To Efficiently Combat An Outbreak of The Pandemic. |
The editorial team takes an issue on this our first publication with the manner in which a section of local politicians have been pushing their political agenda, one that seems to be inspired by gaining political mileage rather than for the public good especially in these strange times where the entire world has literary shut down in order to combat a novel and invincible enemy. But before we delve into how 'they' are orchestrating this sinister scheme, we will take you through measures that were put in place by Gov. Dr. Mohamed Abdi Kuti's administration in order to mitigate the very likely damning effects of the Covid-19 pandemic that has overwhelmed even countries that have been known to have some of the best healthcare plans in place and for years at that which include Italy,U.K, U.S.A, Spain and even Germany among others.
Gov. Kuti has also been cited by the Standard Newspaper as one of the leaders who have done a good job in combatting the pandemic within their communities through a front page article which identified the 'doers'(which Gov. Kuti is amongst) and the 'talkers' as seen below.
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| Doer: Governor Kuti cited by the Standard Newspaper as one of the leaders who have been at the forefront of combatting the Covid-19 Pandemic |
Public Awareness Campaign
Govenor Kuti has been at the forefront in the fight against the pandemic since Kenya was in its preparatory stage by the virtue of his position at the CoG as the chairperson of the health committee, a position he was reelected unopposed in earlier last year hence represents virtually all the county govts in matters health at the national level. While heading the national coronavirus taskforce alongside the Health C.S Mutahi Kagwe and other senior health officials, he has been making numerous appearances in the national televisions and advised the public on how to protect themselves and those of their loved ones and the community at large by insisting on cessation of handshakes and using the forms of salutations such as the 'elbow bump' and the 'namaste' greetings.
Locally, he has made numerous call-ins to the local radio sensitizing the public on how to keep themselves safe while reiterating the need to stay at home, hand washing and wearing a face mask. In addition to that, the county government has been running ads on the local radio stations for weeks all in an effort to ensure the public remains informed at all times as the risk of an outbreak remains high more counties reporting their first cases of the coronavirus. The message has been well received by the public too with most callers-in thanking the governor for ensuring that the message is put out in stark terms to the public as they have learnt a lot about how to protect themselves and how to deal with a person infected with coronavirus should there be an outbreak in the future.
Awareness messages by other depts of the county have been stellar.
Revamping of Health Facilities Across the County
Seeing how strained the health facilities in far developed nations have been, governor Kuti took the cue and has since revamped the health facilities across the county by preparing decent isolation wards so that the administration has the infrastructure in place in case of an outbreak. The are just standard procedures, one would say but it requires certain level of precision to be able to achieve the desired results.
The ICTRH capacity of the I.C.Us and H.D.Us have been revamped in record time.
Ventilators and oxygen concentrators have also been purchased in numbers and dispatched to all the health facilities across each ward of Isiolo county.
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| Gov.Kuti Inspecting some of the ICU beds and other assorted medical equipments put in place by his administration which is geared towards establishing ample capacity for the ICTRH in case the pandemic reaches here. |
PPEs For Health Workers
The health workers are the most 'at risk' from the pandemic should there be an outbreak because of the close proximity by which they have to attend to coronavirus patients. As such, it is imperative that they be armed with proper Personal Protective Equipments(P.P.E) in order to protect themselves from an infection which they will inadvertently pass on to their patients creating another cycle of infections which may aggravate matters even further. It is for the same reason that other hardly hit countries like the U.S.A have been prioritising the robust testing of the health workers in order to ensure that they are safe to attend to the patients. Gov. Kuti's administration has moved with considerable speed to ensure such loopholes are sealed in advance by availing them to the local health workers in record time.
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| Governor Kuti inspecting a consignment of PPE gear that his administration availed to its health staff which will be critical in fighting the pandemic amicably by arming the front caregivers enough confidence to attend to their patients. |
Public Health and Safety
The county government has in collaboration with their various health partners moved with speed to avail enough water containers which shall be used for hand washing purposes across various institutions and market places where personal contact remains high. The county has also undertaken various fumigation exercise across the town especially the market and public places such as the health facilities. The Isiolo County Fire truck was used for some of these purposes, too.
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| Gov.Kuti's administration distributed more than 200 50Litre capacity tanks to all the wards in order to sensitize the public accordingly about hand washing. The tanks will be set up in critical areas such as the health facilities and market places where the degree of proximity is unavoidable. |
Universal Health Coverage
The importance of U.H.C which gov. kuti remains its key proponent of is now just dawning on the Isiolo public as most are now accessing quality health at no cost with the program still in its piloting stage in Isiolo county and three others.
This shall come in handy should there be an outbreak as most locals wouldn't have been able to afford the cost of medication for illnesses such as coronavirus where one may likely end up in the I.C.U or the H.D.U services whose charges are often unattainable for the ordinary folks.
Furthermore, the county government is preparing plans to configure the Handset and App plan used by the CHVs for tracing maternal issues and malnutrition among children in isiolo county which will now come in handy in contact tracing for possible coronavirus victims.
It should not be forgotten that this is the plan that the local senator Mrs. Fatuma Dullo has been fighting tooth and nail, albeit unsuccessfully, which is now becoming some sort of a 'safe haven' for the Isiolo public who have finally come around to appreciate that their leader has a plan in place and that is being implemented.
Food Distribution To The Most Vulnerable
The County Government of Isiolo is so far the only level of government that has engaged in aggressive food distribution across all the ten(10) wards as a measure to mitigate the loss of economic livelihood as a result of many small businesses being forced to shut down to lessen the chances of transmission.
The food distribution was conducted in a fair, transparent and efficient manner albeit unlike the Kibra fiasco where at least two(2) people lost their lives after a stampede ensued when former prime minister Raila Odinga sought to distribute relief food to the locals.
The Governor further promised that distribution of more food stuffs was on the way assuring the people that his administration shall do all that it takes to ensure that no person goes hungry in Isiolo county as a result of losing their economic livelihood to the measures put in place as a result of the pandemic threat.
As such, it reeks of high moral decadence when a section of the local leadership tries to poke holes where there isn't any at the expense of mobilising their own funds to supplement the effort of the county government.
It is on this basis that we wish to encourage Governor Dr. Kuti to remain steadfast in his plans to ensure Isiolo remains a safe haven from the pandemic and not to be cowed by the apathetic charlatans who appear not to be in the know of the gargantuan peril that we are faced with.
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| Mrs. Abdia Tone, Chief Officer for Special Programs inspecting additional food consignments procured by the county government for distribution to the most vulnerable across the county. |
POLITICAL SKULDUGGERY STANDS TO EXACERBATE THE SITUATION
Not surprisingly, but none the less nauseating, a local cabal of belligerent politicians who have not as much as taken the word out to the public about the virus and whose political survival seemingly rests on the punches and barbs they throw governor kuti's way have been, with the aid of their vociferous toadies, undermining every step and plan of action the governor has been taking aimed at protecting the citizenry from a global pandemic often calling into question how such and such a decision was taken or how certain budgetary commissions were made not caring to acknowledge that we are indeed living in strange times and that time is of the essence if a possible viral outbreak can be contained effectively.
One such politician, you guessed right, is Senator and senate Deputy Majority Leader Fatuma Dullo (often regarded within local parlance as the grand drama queen) who has never spared a chance to take it on Governor Kuti for various, often trivial matters that have all come to be debunked overtime. The senator has been whipping up the emotions of a section of the county residents against the governor while accusing him of matters that are best sorted out in the court, which as an advocate herself, should have known better.
The senator who has been lackadaisical through out this period of uncertainty for all and sundry has not as much as voiced a simple message for the public on how to stay clear of the virus or at least try as much, let alone using her office's funds to chip in to cater for the less fortunate or the most at risk such as the elderly as a collective effort is needed at all capacities and echelons and the senate being supposedly the second highest office in the devolved unit should not be an exception.
The senator needs to learn when to orchestrate her political battles because there is a general agreement among the public that this is not such a time when we are looking down a global pandemic that seems to take no prisoners.
New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, a firebrand Democrat and never one to come to an agreement on several matters with President Trump had to come to terms with the reality the New York and the American public were faced with and had to find an understanding with the latter so that New York hospitals could get the much needed ventilators for surging cases of coronavirus cases. U.K Prime minister Boris Johnson, a Covid-19 survivor himself and Labor leader ditched their political differences to ensure a hastened passage for bill meant to control the effects of the pandemic on the public health, economic, social and political fabrics.
Those are just but a few of the cases where world leaders are dealing with the 'new normal' as a collective unit and not a disjointed body'.
it is because of this that we wish to remind senator dullo to reexamine her principles and find a working schedule with the governor so that she can become a part of the solution and not be remembered as the lady who continued playing the tunes of politics as her electorates felled en masse from a pandemic.
Rehema Jaldesa, the women rep who is also loosely regarded in certain local parlance as the grand queen of flip-flop has been engaging in what many have described as a dangerous path where she has been transversing the county most times alongside her new political Siamese twin Mrs. Dhullo accusing the governor of inaction and a slew of other accusations that is believed to be directed at undermining the governor's activities as he tries his best to scale up his county's health facilities capacity and efficacy to be able to contain an impending Covid-19 outbreak. The accusations, as usual, are both predictable and nonsensical as despite the lip service that the two leaders have been giving to the public, they have not been able to prove any of their accusations in a tribunal or the courtroom and from our observation, they are also losing big in the so-called court of public opinion as the members of the public have recently been apt in asking what the two politicians have been contributing to the fight against Covid-19 other than bad mouthing the governor every waking moment that they get a chance in front of a microphone.
It is perhaps after the public started asking questions on why it was only the county government that appears serious in battling the Coronavirus or its outbreak there of that Mrs. Jaldesa took a decision to purchase(make) a number of face masks(with her name on it as seen below) for distribution to bodaboda operators. However, the hideous PR stunt backfired on her with pundits from across the divide admonishing her decision to turn people into walking billboards obviously geared towards her 22 bid for who knows what. Others also called her out saying that 'brandishing ones name on a protective material such as a face mask is no different from putting ones name on a condom' and wondered who was giving her such heedless political counsel that stands to damage her stature in the eyes of the public further than it already is.
some pundits have further attributed RDJs recent political restlessness to the rise of her rumoured political nemesis Mumina Gollo Bonaya(MGB) who was recently appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as the CAS for Education and whose growing popularity among the populace of all age and creed has been disconcerting to the supposedly beleaguered incumbent women rep even before her perceived nemesis officially declares her interest.
There is also a school of thought that believes the two leaders have been bankrolled by the Deputy President Dr. William Ruto to a tune of Kes 50M to frustrate land matters that is being undertaken by the county government of Isiolo where it is also rumoured that the now defunct 'Pentagon' offered the DP swathes of land within the county according to texts that was shared widely across the Isiolo blogosphere but which we couldn't authenticate so far. However, it is imperative for them to focus on the danger at hand right now and suspend their political innuendos for a later time.
The panel hopes that both leaders find their footing sooner rather than later to realize that this, in particular, isn't an ideal time to throw political punches or trying to succeed at making another leader appear to be a failure in the eyes of the very public he is serving, especially when the opposite is true.
This is the time when the electorates need all of their leaders hands on deck as a collective force and we urge the duo to join the governor in the fight against the pandemic and not to remain on the periphery disapproving every other decision taken by the governor for the public good lest history judges them harshly!
On behalf of the Panel,
By
Editor-in-Chief,
ICBN.co.ke
#KeepItICBN #StayHome
