"Immediately after this [Press Conference] I am going straight to Serena for lunch where I'll pay 2,500/= for the lunch. People are finding it hard to pay Kshs. 66/= a day [Trust him to learn from YU's 5 cents per second ad] while I pay 2,500/= for lunch?". That was Ayan'g Nyong'o trying to explain why there will be no negotiations on the new NHIF charges.

I don't even know where to begin.

1) I wonder how many of his constituents and the over taxed Kenyans can afford a 2,500/= lunch. Heck. How many can afford lunch?

2) It's not simply about 2k. If you are planning to deduct up to 2k from my salary, I want to know exactly what I'll get in return. There are people who are willingly paying much more for their health insurance for a very simple reason - cost benefit analysis. Why would I want to pay even a thousand bob only to end up lying on the floor on the corridors of Kenyatta Hospital waiting for treatment - for up to 24 hrs - while doctors just pass by as if I don't even exist?

What worries me most is the precedence this will set. How can a parastatal initiate or even revise statutory deductions without involving parliament. Which parastatal will be next? For those younger than Njung'e - that is most of us - do you know there were statutory deductions for the City Council many years back? If NHIF succeeds, very soon we might be paying City council tax, County tax, Pedestrian tax, Commuter tax etc. etc.

yeye ni brari uji baridi

Building the Nation
Henry Barlow (Uganda)

Today I did my share
In building the nation.
I drove a Permanent Secretary
To an important, urgent function
In fact, to a luncheon at the Vic.
The menu reflected its importance
Cold bell beer with small talk,
Then fried chicken with niceties
Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs
Ice-cream to cover the stereotype jokes
Coffee to keep the PS awake on the return journey.
I drove the Permanent Secretary back.
He yawned many times in back of the car
Then to keep awake, he suddenly asked,
Did you have any lunch friend?
I replied looking straight ahead
And secretly smiling at his belated concern
That I had not, but was slimming!
Upon which he said with a seriousness
That amused more than annoyed me,
Mwananchi, I too had none!
I attended to matters of state.
Highly delicate diplomatic duties you know,
And friend, it goes against my grain,
Causes me stomach ulcers and wind.
Ah, he continued, yawning again,
The pains we suffer in building the nation!

Thought i was the only one who got pissed by his sentiments. kwanza when he said he pays 2000 an amount he made equivalent to what he takes 4 lunch.
Assuming he earns 1 million per month this is 0.2% of his salary and yet he wants that dude who earns 20000 per month to pay 1000 which is 5%. NKT
ABK

BK. So does this mean we drop our current (and more convenient) covers? with AAR, APA, Resolution etc? I mean, if you're shelling out 30k a year for that cover, and then now start shelling out 18,000 to 24,000 a year for NHIF, thats 48,000 - 54,000 a year!