Outspoken Citizen TV anchor, Yvonne Okwara, on Thursday night, offered her piece of mind on how to tackle cancer, which many feel should be declared the national disaster.
Before offering her six measures on how to face the menace, Okwara candidly ranted about politicians taking advantage of the current sombre situation in the country to offer citizens fake promises on wiping out the deadly disease.
“Kenyatta National Hospital is asking Kenyans to contribute money to build a cancer hospital, yet is the same hospital that ironically denied a cancer patient treatment until she died. The real national disaster here is not cancer, but our leaders who use this highly emotional moments following the deaths of prominent individuals to make rosy statements.
“Calls for free screening and building cancer centres. Things that have to be paid for. The National Assembly and Senate cannot even agree on Ksh11 billion for the counties which handle 90 per cent of the health function. The president himself boldly stated that he does not print money and that they should be satisfied with what they get,” Okwara lamented.
The candid journalist then divulged on how the peril should be faced.
“First of all, gather all data on cancer. Then finish mapping out all the counties to understand the extent and scope of the problem,” Okwara stated.
She then proceeded to inform that a cancer centre should be ready for construction at that point.
“Build that cancer centre and see to it that MPs ensure that it is fully funded before calling for more free funds.
“Later on, fully implement national cancer strategy 2017-2022 and establish at least four regional cancer distributed in 47 counties. Strengthen the counties and sub-county hospitals to provide better health care. This way, you will fix the entire health system,” the anchor detailed.
Her last solution was a call to empower the UHC program which focuses on primary care where screening and accurate diagnosis should be done.
“We have been down this road before. In 2016, a deal was signed between the Indian Prime Minister and President Uhuru Kenyatta to build a multi-billion cancer centre. Three years later, we are still waiting for financing, design and the construction to begin,” Okwara cried openly as she rallied the government not to mourn the late Joyce Laboso, Bob Collymore and Ken Okoth, but all Kenyans perishing from cancer.
Watch the video, courtesy of Citizen TV
