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Three Die Of Cholera In Siaya

Three people have died of cholera in the past one week in Siaya County.

The area CECM for health Dr. Martin Konyango confirmed that all the deaths occurred at Bondo sub county hospital, with the latest taking place on Tuesday.

Addressing the media in his office in Siaya town, Dr. Konyango who was flanked by the county chief officer for health, Dr. Omondi Owino and epidemiologist, Mr. Joseph Okuto said the other two deaths occurred on 17th and 18th of this month.

He said that so far, 92 cases of cholera have been reported in the county in the last one month, most of whom have been treated and discharged from the public hospitals.

‘Of the 92, nine are still admitted in various Cholera Treatment Units spread across the three sub counties of Rarieda, Bondo and Ugenya,’ said the county executive committee member for health.

He said that the department has identified Manyuanda in west Uyoma and Oyamo Island in Lake Victoria as the epicenters of the disease, saying efforts were being made to prevent contagion.

He said that his department was using community health volunteers to help in the war against the spread of the disease, adding that they have also distributed chlorine to the communities to help treat water for domestic use.

Dr. Konyango called for support from the community, saying all must embrace use of toilets and ensure high standards of hygiene.

He called on the public to ensure that anyone who shows symptoms of acute diarrhoea is rushed to nearby health facilities for treatment.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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Retired Civil Servants To Enjoy Post-Retirement Medical Insurance Scheme

The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) will from next financial year roll out a pre-retirement medical scheme for retiring civil servants.

A team of officers from the government led by Humphrey Sakala from NHIF told civil servants in Iten that plans are at an advanced stage to roll out the scheme saying treasury had already provided Shs.1 billion for the scheme.

The officers were told that a Cabinet memo had already been prepared and was only awaiting approval saying the scheme will go a long way in catering for the health needs of civil servants once they retire.

They were however told that contributions to the scheme was not yet determined but will depend on the years a civil servant has left before exiting the service.

The civil servants had raised concerns over the lack of a comprehensive health insurance scheme for retired civil servants forcing them to rely on the Sh. 6000 per year which is not comprehensive.

In a bid to address the problem of lack of drugs in most public health facilities, Daisy Chepkoech said plans are under way to have accredited pharmacists where civil servants can get drugs and NHIF pays for the same saying for now they are allowed to get drugs from another facility and bill NHIF.

She added that the Public Service Commission has a fund known as excess of loss fund to cater for officers who have exhausted their annual NHIF limits due to the nature of their illness saying one only needs to formally write to the PSC through their human resource department giving details of the illness to access the exgratia fund.

Ms. Chepkoech, who is a medic, called on officers and their spouses to go for annual health checkups even when they are not sick which will be paid for by NHIF so that in case of an ailment it can be treated early saying most go to hospital when diseases which could be treated have reached chronic stage.

She also advised the officers to avoid seeking treatment in high end private hospitals which charge expensively unless there is no alternative saying this will ensure that they don’t exhaust their annual limits.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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Disgruntled shipyard workers besiege company, demand payment of salary arrears

Workers of the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering company staged a strike action on Tuesday, May 23, demanding payment of five (5) months’ salaries owed them, including social and health insurance.

“Workers have gone for five months without salaries, social insurance is not there, and health insurance lacking. People are dying because they fall sick and cannot treat themselves since there is no salary,” one of the protesters, Enow Barnabas, said.

Some of the workers now sleep at the Shipyard’s premises because they have either been chased out by their landlords for unpaid rent or are running away from the landlord.

“Workers are suffering. Some of them now stay here in the shipyard because their landlords have sent them out over unpaid rent. They are managing in the yard, to sleep, and in the morning, they get up and continue working.” Added Enow Barnabas.

According to the disgruntled workers, Chantier Naval which was vibrant and number one to be respected in Africa, is now a shadow of itself, following its collapse.

“Working at Chantier Naval before used to give hope that one day your children will love working there. But where we are today we don’t have that hope due to the ill-treatment. Chantier Naval in the former days paid three months advanced salaries to civil servants. Today the reverse is true. We are instead owed months of salaries. Is it that, the Director General then was better than the current one?”. Asked Barnabas.

While demanding payment of their accumulated five months’ salaries and better working conditions, they also implored the Head of State to use his powers and get the company back on its feet.

“This company was created when he just took over power. So we want him to take the responsibility now to see how this company can come back to life because it is dying.

In a phone conversation with the Director General of Chantier Naval, he said he has been in Yaounde to negotiate with government authorities for the salaries and insurance issues to be solved.

The workers threaten to continue with the strike if quick action is not taken.

It should be underlined this is neither the first nor the 2nd time workers of the National Shipyard and Industrial Engineering company go on strike, demanding payment of salary arrears and decrying poor working conditions.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

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Business tycoon Aliko Dangote sets up Africa’s largest petroleum refinery

Top business tycoon, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has inaugurated Africa’s largest refinery, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery worth $19 billion which is set to revolutionize crude oil refining in Africa. The first product is slated to be on the market by July 2023.

The refinery was inaugurated by outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari on May 22, 2023, in Lagos Nigeria, and saw the attendance of 5 African presidents notably, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic, President Mahamat Déby of Chad and other bigwigs present.

Reports reveal the inauguration comes a decade after the business tycoon had announced plans for the refinery in September 2013, when he had secured about $3.3 billion in financing for the project.

President Buhari during the inauguration stated that the said facility can process 650,000 barrels a day of crude which would enable Nigeria to achieve self-sufficiency in refined products, and will even have a surplus for export.

“This clearly makes this event a notable milestone for our economy and a game-changer for the downstream petroleum products market, not only in Nigeria but the entire African continent,” the president said, “courtesy the Cable News.

Buhari, reiterating the significance of the project, said Nigeria’s economy has been stressed for many decades by efficiencies in economic infrastructure and over a decade of insurgency.

He says the situation was also severely impacted due to several external crises including the global financial crisis, the collapse of oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, with a capacity to process 650,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), which sits on 2,635 hectares of land in the Dangote Industries Free Zone in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, is said to employ over 100,000 persons.

It is expected that the new refinery would meet 100 percent of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (gasoline, 53 million liters per day; diesel, 34 million liters per day; kerosene, 10 million liters per day, and aviation jet, (2 million liters per day), and also have a surplus of each of these products for export.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

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MP Calls For Protection Of Alupe From Illegal Gold Mining

Following an outcry by residents of Alupe in Teso South Sub County, area MP Mary Emase now wants the Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kidiki to secure the area from encroachers from a neighbouring country, whom she said were mining gold illegally in Kenyan land.

Speaking at Alupe after the visit in the area, Emase accused security officers in the area for turning a blind eye to the matter despite several complaints from residents about the ongoing pollution on the land.

‘When you visit Alupe along the border, you will find huge ditches scattered all over an area measuring more than five hectares of illegal goal miners from Uganda who carry out their activities at night with an aim at securing one of the most valuable minerals in the world,’ said Emase.

The lawmaker now wants police to intensify patrols along the border to protect the residents from gold miners who are always armed, posing a big threat to the lives of locals who can no longer cultivate their land for fear of being attacked.

‘The miners from Uganda are always armed, as they know they have encroached on our land. ‘Even the Chinese company doing underground mining in Uganda has caused cracks in many buildings on the Kenyan side, clear evidence of illegal mining on our side,’ she added.

Last month, Busia Deputy Governor Arthur Odera launched the initiative of enacting a law through the County Assembly that will control mining, especially of sand and gold, to avoid degrading wetlands that are sources of water for residents and destroying the habitat of aquatic animals.

Odera noted that sand mining has reduced the wetlands’ natural function of water filtering, thereby harming aquatic life.

He said the miners have encroached on more than 40 per cent of the wetlands at Alupe and Odioi areas in the name of gold and sand.

Emase now wants the government to gazette the Alupe area in Teso South and the Bumutiri area as mining areas and streamline the industry to enable locals to benefit from the lucrative business.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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