KENYA: Archbishop Muheria to Government, “Stop Advertising, Start Delivering”
Sr. Henriette Anne, FSSA
As Kenya navigates complex socio-economic challenges, Archbishop Anthony Muheria has raised concern to the Kenya Government about the excessive focus on publicity rather than action, warning them on the tendency to advertise government projects, plans, and achievements instead of implementing adding that the government is not an advertising agency.
“There has to be less rhetoric, we have to stop advertising and act. The government seems to be constrained to the advertisement of government projects, advertisement of government plans, the government is not an advertisement agency, it is an agency that implements actions, that’s what we want to see”, Archbishop Muheria said.
He warned, “Stop advertising what we should do, we will do, we have done, rather put yourself to get people, resources, experts, and we have the great capacity even in our leadership, in government and they can deliver”.
The prelate urged the Government to ban advertisements, noise, and insults and to start appreciating each other’s contributions.
“How I wish that we can shelve all these advertisements, noise, insulting, and demining statements and start construction, appreciating one another, appreciating contribution, appreciating the values, the expertise and bring all that together, there is nothing in Kenya we cannot do and build, that’s our call”.
The Archbishop of Nyeri suggested that there is a need for a government that follows rules, systems, and builds and not government that puts its machinery to advertisement.
He highlighted the dire state of the healthcare sector, particularly the delayed reimbursement of funds from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the Social Health Insurance Fund.
“Despite the tremendous efforts, we are trying to make to improve the health delivery all over and in these hospitals in particular, we continue very constrained by the reimbursement and payment from our NHIF that is now defunded, and from the SHIF which is supposed to be supporting”.
According to the Archbishop, hospitals continue to struggle due to unpaid debts amounting to over 250 million Kenya shillings, and despite repeated pleas for timely payments, the government response has remained uncommitted.
“The hospitals are not receiving this reimbursement in time, we still have over 250 million owed to us by the government, these we have been for the last four years, we try, we cry, we appeal, we plead, but we seem to receive just very uncommitted responses, sometimes they said that we are complaining too much or that we exaggerate”.
The Local Ordinary of Nyeri added, “In any industry, company, or organization, a debt of 250 million is a debt that paralyzes the institution, yet we have continued offering, so we take this moment to urge the government, they must study how this must work, we need payments, we need reimbursements and we feel sad that we are hiding our head in the sand and not facing problems”.
