Section 5 Social Welfare
Importance of Social Welfare in Development
The Kenyan people require various services from their government so as realize social welfare. The prevalence of poverty compels our people to look upon government to provide essential facilities and services, especially in education, healthcare, water and sanitation, and housing.
ODM-K believes that government has a responsibility to facilitate the realization of such basic needs. Furthermore, improvement in the social welfare of the citizens has a direct bearing upon economic development. A program of heavy economic investment, high productivity, and economic growth such as we envisage demands a healthy, educated, trained, and active citizens. Investment in the health, education, and comfort of our citizens is therefore a direct investment in our economic development. ODM-K will implement specific program in each of these sectors:
a. Healthcare
Kenya’s health status is one of the lowest in the world. The country has a very high ratio of one doctor to every 6,000 persons; life expectancy has declined to 46 years; and infant mortality has increased and now stands at 78 per 1,000 live births – more than twice the rate in most European countries. Many early deaths are due to both preventable and curable diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia.
Most importantly, many Kenyans are increasingly unable to meet the cost of healthcare, especially in-patient services that require specialized or surgical care. The enormous demand for contributions from friends and family to off-set hospital bills is a problem that requires urgent attention.
Furthermore, morbidity – the general condition of ill-health – often causes much pain and suffering, drastically reduces the productivity of the population, and both drains and diverts family resources away from economic investment and the improvement of living conditions
ODM-K is committed to ensuring universal access to affordable and quality healthcare by all Kenyans by the year 2012. ODM-K government will therefore:
i. Save lives immediately by providing free healthcare for all Kenyans who are unable to afford it and progressively move towards a universal healthcare program
ii. Carry out a comprehensive review of the relevant policies, laws, and the institutional framework that govern the delivery of healthcare services with the aim of decentralizing healthcare management
iii. Make healthcare, responsive to the needs of the people through the establishment of a multi-stakeholder National Healthcare Council to oversee the governance and management of healthcare in Kenya while the Health Ministry plays policymaking and regulatory roles
iv. Establish and develop well equipped health centers in each sub-location to ensure easy access to healthcare by all
v. Promote an integrated approach to healthcare that places equal emphasis on preventive medicine, including environmental hygiene and access to clean drinking water, food nutrition, and quality sanitation
vi. Hire a sufficient number of skilled health workers, especially nurses and doctors to improve patient to health specialist ratio and arrest the brain drain in the health sub-sector through better remuneration for health works
vii. Develop and implement a special health and nutrition scheme for the Kenyan child to ensure universal access to proper nutrition and healthcare by the year 2012 and scrap taxes on foodstuffs like maize meal, rice, cooking oil, sugar, milk, and bread and infants formulas because food and nutrition are the first line of defense against illnesses
viii. Increase investment in healthcare research and medicine to maintain a high technical standards and scientific competence in the sector
ix. Fast-track capacity building and conversion of National Hospital Insurance Scheme into a comprehensive healthcare insurance cover so that every Kenyan can receive healthcare
x. Promote safe motherhood through the provision of free access to reproductive health care and maternity services at all public health facilities, the provision of antenatal and post- natal care programs, and training of traditional birth attendants
xi. Intensify HIV/AIDS programs by increasing access to retroviral drugs, enhance education and awareness programs, and enable those already living with HIV and AIDS to lead normal lives
xii. Ensure that all mothers and children have insecticide-treated bed nets by 2009 to counter the high infant mortality that is caused by malaria
b. Education, Human Resource and the Youth
The education system in Kenya is in a state of crisis. While high level human resources have been developed in many fields, significant distortions are prevalent in terms of oversupply of skills in some fields and a dearth in others. Brain-drain to foreign countries has increased due to unavailability of employment opportunities and poor working conditions here at home. A disconnect exists between the skills development regime and the needs of industry. The rate secondary school drop-out is high due to unaffordable school fees that is, moreover, expected to rise following the introduction of free primary education. Post-school unemployment is high partly due to inappropriate educational curriculum. Finally, both learning and research at our universities have declined to appalling levels due to insufficient funding and poor academic environment.
ODM-K government will develop and implement a comprehensive education policy framework that will enable Kenya’s education system to support the envisaged economic development and provide real benefits to the individual learner, including wider knowledge and gainful employment.
ODM-K will:
i. Strengthen free primary education and implement free secondary education for all by 2009 so that no young Kenyan lacks the essential skills and knowledge to engage in gainful employment in a field of his or her choice
ii. Establish a special agency to manage the provision of educational grants and scholarships to ensure transparency and accountability in the sector and develop a more appropriate system of educational loans and bursaries for universities and colleges
iii. Ensure the supply of adequate and sufficiently trained and motivated teachers, tutors, and lecturers; the provision of modern facilities for teaching and learning, including ICT; and adequate research grants
iv. Streamline university financing so as to modernize university teaching and research facilities and improve remuneration of professors and lecturers and at the same time lower the cost of university and college level education by 30% within five years so as to increase the transition rate from secondary schools to tertiary institutions by 2012.
v. Renovate and upgrade the educational infrastructure at all levels in order to cater for increased enrolment and raise the quality of training, with priority give to the development of infrastructure for primary, secondary and middle level vocational and technical institutions
vi. Introduce a special accelerated national program to train and develop professionals and entrepreneurs through Advanced Technology and Entrepreneurship Colleges in close collaboration with the private sector. Graduates of these colleges will help the country to meet the demands of the fast-growing economy proposed in this manifesto
c. Housing
Poverty in Kenya is partly expressed through housing conditions. Many Kenyans especially in the urban areas are homeless while others are regularly evicted from their homes due to unaffordable rents or for erecting homes in un-authorized spaces. Many others in urban areas are unable to afford home ownership mortgages and perpetually live in small rented premises while their counterparts in the rural areas live in pre-modern shelters without sanitary facilities and are thus, like slum dwellers in urban centers, exposed to both water airborne and diseases.
ODM-K will develop a home ownership program at the same time as reducing the cost of construction to make rented homes affordable. Specifically, ODM-K will:
i. Invest in housing development research to find long term solutions to housing shortage with an emphasis on building materials that can make home construction cheaper and more affordable
ii. Construct permanent economy housing units to replace the present informal settlements in Nairobi and other urban areas
iii. Partner with private financial institutions to create special loan facilities for the purchasing of low cost housing and thereby resolve the present discrepancies that involve oversupply of houses in some categories and undersupply in others
iv. Expand site and service programs in housing development and create more innovative ownership schemes
v. Enforce urban planning laws and compliance with building standards
Sports Development
Kenya is a world-renowned sporting country. However, the country lacks a coherent, long term policy and program of action for the development of sports and recognition of our sportsmen and sportswomen. ODM-K will develop sports into a major social and economic activity within 5 years. Specifically, we will:
i. Restructure and reengineer the National Sports Council into a national sports promotion and development agency with representation at constituency level.
ii. Launch a talent identification and development programme aimed at developing skills capacities in sports from early childhood to professional levels.
iii. Promote the development of sports, arts and cultural centres in every rural sub-location and urban neighbourhood.
iv. Increase budgetary allocation to sports development in schools, colleges and universities and ultimately enable sports to become a financially self-sustaining activity through encouragement of the private sector to invest and partner in sports development.
v. Establish a national sports development fund under the management of the National Sports Council to receive contributions and donations from sponsors to cater for the training, remuneration and upkeep of national sports teams.
Marginalized Members of the Community
Kenya lags behind many other countries that have transcended the practice of social, economic, and political marginalization of certain members of their society. The most adversely affected groups are women, including the girl-child, people with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, pastoral communities in arid and semi-arid areas, minority communities and child-headed households.
Marginalized people face discrimination with respect to access to economic opportunities, employment in senior positions, access to social services, and ownership of productive assets. Marginalized people also unfairly treated with regard to respect for human rights, administration of the rule of law, and political representation. ODM-K will end all manner of marginalization of any members of the Kenyan community. Indeed, we won independence so that all may be equal before the law. Therefore, ODM-K will:
i. Implement affirmative action through the formulation and implementation of non-discriminatory policies and legislation so as to ensure parity across all important social lines (gender, religious, regional, physical condition, ethnic and racial origins), beginning with a 50:50 formula for women representation and appointment to public service
ii. Review and correct gender discriminatory laws affecting marriage, inheritance, land ownership, and custody and maintenance of children; support a Marriage and Family Protection law; and implement measures to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence
iii. Support child-headed households by providing for their basic needs and promoting foster parenthood
iv. Raise public awareness and sensitivity to the needs and convenience of people with disabilities in our midst and provide them with equal opportunities in governance and the economy