Health Reform Kenya, and more on the constitution

The Kenyan Ministry of Health Services is planning a radical expansion of health care in the country. According to the Human Resource Development Sector Report 2010, the programme will create 24,000 new jobs, expand ambulance and primary healthcare services into the ARALs. The programme is a response to indicators that showed gains made towards the end of the last century were being eroded in the new millennium.

Follow for details.

Gay Census; useful first step

My honest opinion, and I will accept chastisement for my ignorance, is that homosexual Kenyans are far safer, far far safer with the government than they are with the Kenyan public. This is one of those issues like the Mau debate, or caning in schools, or the death penalty where the state will be more likely to defend and protect human rights than the public, the media or even civil society leadership will be to sue for it.

Syzygy Mandaea explains why he thinks gay Kenyans are safer with their government than they would be without: human rights, healthcare and violence.

DDT, Malaria and the eco-system

Patience Wanga on the history of the banned pesticide, its effects on human hormones, and the environment.

Long before DDT landed, the developed world had in 1800s succeeded in reducing malaria cases by intensive draining of millponds and swamps. Countries that use DDT and those that employ other weapons in the fight against Malaria seem to show equivalent progress in controlling the effects of the parasite. In our country, without the necessary debate or policy, we are torn between pushing for a total ban on DDT and allowing its continued use regardless of the detriment to the environment and the people. Meanwhile, Malaria continues to kill far more Kenyans than HIV-AIDS every year.

Read more here.