Mushrooming campuses alarming

By LUKOYE ATWOLI

Daily Nation Tuesday, November 25 2008 Page 11

EXPANDING UNIVERSITY EDUCATION and taking higher education closer to the people in need of it is an important prerequisite for any country aspiring for industrial development.

It seems clear that our local universities have taken on this role with gusto, and are engaged in voracious expansion and creation of satellite campuses, colleges and collaborations with private institutions.

Over the past decade, there has been apparent competition between the universities on which one will have the largest number of satellite campuses in the most far-flung corners of our republic.

However, this has been done with the same degree of preparation as goes into an improvised kindergartners’ dance. University bigwigs just declare that we shall have a campus in such and such an area and voila! The deed is done.

In many cases, no thought is given to the staffing and infrastructure necessary to make the campus an ideal learning environment, and often students are called to these campuses before the teaching staff are identified.

Indeed, in many cases, the only consideration is that the location should be near the home of one of the senior university administrators.

This is leading to a situation where our universities are beginning to appear like glorified secondary schools, competing with all sorts of middle-level colleges for students.

Highly educated professors are being dispatched to head up these colleges and campuses and end up being under-employed and playing the same role as headmasters and principals of high schools!

It is time our universities sat back and rethought this whole expansion strategy.

Failure to involve all those affected in siting satellite campuses will result in a situation where it will become increasingly difficult for teaching staff to divide their attention between the main campuses and these satellite campuses.

INDEED, A CRISIS IS LOOMING IN some of the universities as teaching staff are beginning to raise complaints about inadequate remuneration and provision of facilities to make it easier for them to reach these far-flung campuses.

The Privately Sponsored Students’ Programme (PSSP) was initiated as an income-generating activity to enable our public universities to improve their infrastructure and to better remunerate lecturers without compromising the quality of education.

As it is currently, the income-generation objective seems to be the only one being met, and going by the complaints from many dons, it would appear that little is being done to meet the other goals.

Education standards are being compromised in the name of taking higher education to the masses.

Most of these universities have very little to show in terms of infrastructure improvements since the programme was started, and even the little money lecturers have been getting through the program is at risk.

The question must therefore be asked: Where have the funds accruing from this PSSP been going? Can any of our public universities fully account for these funds?

Satisfactory answers to these questions will be the exception rather than the rule. Indeed many university administrators will be hard pressed to show that there has not been any corruption in the use of these funds.

Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer, Moi University School of Medicine, Eldoret.

Mathari: What is in a name

By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Daily Nation, Thursday November 13 2008 Page 11

A few weeks ago, the World Mental Health Day was marked. The event is commemorated on October 10, but in Kenya, this was changed to the last Friday of October due to the Moi Day holiday.

Every year, there are calls for the reduction of stigma against mental illness by changing the name of the premier mental health institution in this region, Mathari Hospital.

A former minister of health once suggested a change from Mathari Hospital to ‘‘New Muthaiga Hospital’’ or some other more glamorous name. Ironically, despite having the power to effect the change of name, the minister never went beyond the suggestion.

This year, the matter was rehashed at the ceremony marking the day at Mathari Hospital on October 31. It is likely that nothing will be done about this since the ceremony was given a wide berth by senior officials at the Health ministries.

There is stigma directed towards the mental health community, not only in Kenya, but all over the world. Those with mental illnesses are often shunned or hidden away from public view.

Many languages contain derogatory references to the mentally ill, all suggesting that the illness fundamentally changes one into something less than fully human.

The stigma is not limited to those with mental illness. Their families are often targets of snide remarks, and people are afraid to associate with them.

Stigma is often a product of ignorance and prejudice. It is then manifested in discriminatory behaviour. Tackling ignorance, prejudice and discrimination would, therefore, be a more comprehensive method of dealing with stigma than seeking to whitewash it with a mere change of name.

A strategy incorporating an increase in the general population’s knowledge on mental illness and mental health would be the beginning of an anti-stigma campaign.

Huge amounts of money have been channelled towards increasing knowledge on HIV and Aids over the last two decades, and today it is estimated that over 95 per cent of the adult population knows all there is to know about it.

If only a fraction of this money were used in a mental health awareness campaign, a huge dent in the stigma directed at the mentally ill would be made.

Prejudice may be tackled by demonstrating the ubiquitous nature of mental problems in our society, and highlighting helpful attitudes towards them. Investment in the facilities for treatment of mental illness would go a long way in improving the quality of life for the mentally ill, and for the general population at large.

Discrimination must be tackled from the very top. The Mental Health Act of 1989 takes the first step by outlawing discrimination in health insurance coverage for mental illnesses. This must be taken further to deal with discrimination at the workplace, in social places, hospitals and other public services.

Failure to fundamentally address the problem of stigma towards mental illness is responsible for many social ills in society.

The violent crises in our politics and in the education sector are an indictment on the mental health of our nation, and unless steps are taken to improve the situation, we can predict with utter certainty the recurrence of worse eruptions in future.

Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University School of Medicine, Eldoret. (Lukoye@gmail.com).

YOUTHFUL MPS

Edited version Published Daily Nation Monday 29 September 2008.

By Lukoye Atwoli

The entry of ‘youthful’ politicians onto the national stage excited many in the early days after the elections. People gleefully pointed out the ‘old guard’ who had been thrown out and replaced by young leaders who would presumably inject new ideas and vigour into our national politics. Many thought, barring the fiasco that was the presidential election that ignited ethnic fires across the country, that the new leaders would introduce a new paradigm of leadership devoid of the tribal tint the pre-independence generation were captive to.
In the recent past many of these youthful leaders have moved to swiftly disabuse Kenyans of any notion of ‘newness’ in the way they do business. They have been heard saying ridiculous things like ‘the Rift Valley has given up too much; we will fight for the rights of our region’ and similar tripe. Others are heard stridently repeating the tired cliché: ‘It is our turn to eat- the national cake must be shared equitably’.
Despite being relatively young, these leaders have embraced the same old tired way of doing things, electing to follow the wind instead of forming the essential bulwark against national disintegration. The hopes many had placed in them must now be reevaluated, and the nation must wait another generation for the emergence of true leadership.
Political commentators like Tom Mshindi (Daily Nation, Friday 12 September 2008) in attempting to correct this wayward brood, only end up perpetuating the same tribal nonsense they set out to demolish. Mshindi, for instance, peppered his contribution with messages to tribal leaderships to ‘take advantage of the numerical strength at the national level’. He even refers to the ‘notion of tribal coalition as popular! There can be no clearer indication of intellectual bankruptcy than this.
What Kenya needs is a generation of leaders who stand up for something much more significant than what Justice Johann Kriegler so eloquently referred to as their ‘grandfathers’ surnames’. We need leaders who can see further than their own political noses into a future in which their own roles will be diminished and the reins of leadership will be in different hands.
When youthful leaders make political threats meant to perpetuate environmental degradation, it displays a great degree of incurable myopia that puts to shame all those who have trust in youth and generational change. The older leaders’ stake in the future of Kenya is limited, since many of them have lived long enough to see their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is the younger leaders with children still in diapers who need to keep an eye on the future, laying plans for a better life for the next generation.
Allowing themselves to be drawn into the old politics of ‘my people, their people’ only lowers their claim to greater responsibility and power, for it betrays a hunger, greed or thirst with the potential of outdoing the Goldenberg and Anglo-leasing generation of leaders. All our political thieves do so in the name of their people, even when the so-called ‘people’ do not extend beyond the perimeter walls of their palatial mansions.
As our leaders dither, the rest of the world is moving on, and nations are confronting their own demons. For the first time in history, the United States of America is confronting its twin bogeymen of race and gender discrimination. One candidate is an ethnic minority in the truest sense of the word, being the son of a one-time visitor to the US without the race memory of White supremacy or Black enslavement. The other candidate has chosen a woman for a running mate in a country still populated with women who in their youth did not have voting rights!
Our country needs a similar political re-engineering to come up with a non-tribal system where one campaigns on a platform of issues that matter in the lives of common citizens. Campaigns should be built on issues like healthcare, education, infrastructure development, trade and foreign policy, and not on moronic subjects like ‘this tribe has ruled for too long and needs to be taught a lesson’, or ‘ this community cannot lead this country because they do not circumcise their men’!
Believe it or not, these two were major themes in our campaigns last year, and their animal appeal played a significant part in the eruption of violence after the disputed results. In electing a new generation of leaders, we had hoped to change our political discourse into something more enlightened, and not more of the same.
Clearly we only managed to pour new wine into old wineskins, and now as the Good Book warns us, the new wine has ‘burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed’.

Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Lecturer, Moi University School of Medicine

MPs' baffling display of mediocrity

LUKOYE ATWOLI
Daily Nation
Publication date: September 15 2008

Our MPs never cease to amaze. Recently, some of them used the floor of Parliament to concoct a theory that a non-alcoholic beverage actually contained alcohol and that the brewer was using it to corrupt the morals of our children.
The proof offered by the parliamentarian was the riots that rocked schools during the ‘mock’ exams season, and an alleged experiment by some pupils that is said to have demonstrated alcohol in one of the drinks!
Despite assurances by the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the responsible ministry, these MPs insisted on using tax-payers’ money to go and verify the claims that the drink contains alcohol.
This mediocrity of thought and behaviour was magnified several times over when the index ranking constituencies by poverty levels was released.
Many MPs went to town with claims that the index was doctored to show that their constituencies had become richer than they were five years ago! So loud was the noise that the minister suspended the index pending investigations.
Whether the index was doctored or not cannot be ascertained in these columns. What is of interest, however, is the knee-jerk reaction of MPs who indicate that it would be better if their constituencies are forever ranked as the poorest.
The reason given is that the poorest constituencies receive more handouts in the form of constituency development funds than the richer ones.
In the extremely suspicion-laden political environment our country currently finds itself in, many may find justification in the claims of interference with statistics.
Indeed any official document released by the Government will first be viewed with suspicion and intensely criticised before being accepted reluctantly, if at all.
What is baffling is the speed at which our representatives rushed to criticise the index without looking at the methodology, basing their rejection of the ranking purely on the perceived improvement of poverty levels in their constituencies.
This tells us what their plans are for their people — maintain them in the poorest possible state, dependent on State largesse, which they can then claim as their own.
It is instructive that in five years, these MPs will be falling all over themselves to show how they have improved the lot of their constituents and asking for another five years ‘to complete the development projects they will have started’.
By dismissing the poverty ranking index, they are sending out a clear message that they will not abide any method of evaluating their performance.
The goal of the index should include evaluating the effectiveness of the CDF that is disbursed regularly to the constituencies.
In an ideal situation, if an audit uncovers inefficiencies in the administration of the fund, changes would be instituted to address these weaknesses and make the fund more useful to the people.
Indeed, if the fund is found to be harmful and counterproductive, it would be better to scrap it and think up more meaningful uses to put our money to.
Politicians have perfected the art of empty rhetoric and populist outbursts to the point that they have stopped paying attention to the content of their speech.
This they do with the active connivance of Kenyans who look on and applaud every farcical statement they make.
In the middle of all this, the poverty levels continue to rise, inflation eats away at the savings of the common man, commodity prices climb remorselessly and incomes continue to dwindle.
No politician is displaying the kind of vision needed to raise this country out of the dark hole it is digging itself into. Instead they are either peering into crystal balls trying to figure out if they will be alive in 2012, or making useless noises in defence of their ‘principals’.
As demonstrated in our recent history, this country is suffering from an acute crisis of leadership.

Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at the Moi University School of Medicine.

Local talk-show presenters promoting dangerous quacks

A LOT OF PROGRAMMES ON television have started a very disturbing trend. Segments with religious content and special programmes especially on health issues are commonly presented on weekend breakfast shows, and some of the messages being propagated are deeply troubling.

This past weekend, for instance, one religious leader presented a man said to be suffering from HIV/Aids to his congregation.

The preacher indicated that the man was in ‘‘end-stage disease’’ from his own examination and evaluation. After a session of vociferous and boisterous prayer, the man was declared ‘‘healed’’ of Aids.

His activities raise serious questions about the role of religious bodies in health promotion and prevention of disease. This was not the first time this was occurring on this programme, nor was it the only instance that someone was ‘‘healing’’ serious illnesses on TV.

MANY KENYANS HAVE DEEP RESPECT for their religious leaders and will follow whatever prescriptions are decreed in the name of God. One shudders to imagine what this ‘‘newly healed’’ individual may do with his new-found status.

Another related phenomenon on other TV stations is the practice of inviting a particular expert on traditional medicine to pontificate on the ability of his special preparations to treat a myriad ailments.

This ‘‘expert’’ even proffers a theory of HIV/Aids that is completely at odds with the prevailing scientific opinion as to the causation of HIV and Aids.

He claims that a certain parasite, Paragonimus, is responsible for this global pandemic, and he prescribes an herbal concoction to clear this parasite and free one from the scourge.

This has been going on for quite some time now, and it is surprising the responsible authorities, including those in charge of the war on HIV and Aids, have done very little to directly counter the claims being made by these individuals who can be characterised as charlatans.

The responsible TV stations are also to blame for encouraging these people to continue making these claims to millions of unsuspecting viewers without presenting credible opposing opinions from experts in various health fields.

At a time when the war on HIV/Aids appears to be stagnating, it is dangerous to allow people to peddle falsehoods to patients desperate for good news.

Other well-publicised claims have emanated from a medical professor who over the years has made repeated claims to having ‘‘discovered’’ the cure for HIV.

Every new ‘‘discovery’’ is greeted with fanfare, but there is never follow-up to check if anyone has been put on the concoction and been cured.

As a scientist, the professor knows very well the rigorous burden of proof that is placed on any new pharmacological agents before they are even tested on humans. His claims, therefore, place him in the same category as charlatans who claim to cure every ailment on earth.

The people making these claims are doing a lot of harm to both their clients and their chosen ‘‘professions’’. Genuine traditional healers and religious leaders suffer a crisis of credibility due to the activities of these individuals, and it is time everyone started speaking out against this dangerous practice.

The truth must start being told loud and clear to counter these misleading claims. Left unchecked, our country will decline to the same level of ignominy that has become the fate of South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, who holds that a good shower after unprotected sex will help prevent HIV!

TO DATE, THERE IS NO KNOWN CURE for the disease caused by HIV. What are available are medications to reduce the viral load and to combat opportunistic infections and thus improve the individual’s quality of life.

Nutritional, psychological and behavioural interventions work hand in hand with these medications to help people with HIV/Aids to live as near-normal lives as possible. To purport to have a cure for HIV without subjecting it to rigorous testing and proof is therefore putting the lives of millions at risk.

To declare someone ‘‘healed’’ of HIV is tantamount to hastening their demise and exposing others to infection. Those doing this should be subjected to the full force of the law to discourage others from perpetuating the same fallacies.

Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer, Moi University School of Medicine, Eldoret (Lukoye@gmail.com).