The Smiling Attorney General, now the Smiling Senator for Busia county, has a cause he can champion. As a lawmaker, a distinguished citizen, and a former presidential legal advisor, who served across regimes, Amos Wako has a second chance to stand up for a cause.
‘One foot in the grave: Senator Wako’s scary battle with Covid-19’ opens the door to a new perspective on life. Wako is, so to speak, reborn, probably to serve humanity beyond the callousness and snobbery common among politicians.
Citizen Wako is qualified to champion reforms in the dilapidated and scandal-ridden healthcare: He has the knowledge, he has the opportunity, he has the experience, and he has the platform. All he needs to launch the cause is sufficient empathy and sympathy for the suffering majority.
Wako needs to identify with, and understand the plight of millions of Kenyans. These Kenyans are not as privileged as he is. They are not as endowed as he is. Wako is a second-generation achiever in the household of the late Dr Meshack Wako. A man born, some would say, with a silver spoon in his mouth. The third generation of the Wako family is shining just as bright.
Born in a solid Christian family, of graduate parents in colonial Kenya of the 1940s, Wako is among the few Kenyans who had a head-start in life. He had the best education, from Kakamega High School, through to Alliance High School, and up to internationally acclaimed universities.
The man has practised law at the highest level possible, breaking solidly into the international legal arena in the 1980s. Wako has held many positions, courtesy of good education, and has served in many professional associations. Such opportunities are available to people who have the right education, and appropriate connections. Wako had it all. He continues to enjoy, in his second life, the perks of public office.
This is the kind of background, education, and wealth that makes sense when it’s shared to spread joy – to make life better for the next person. The light should not be hidden under the bed in some guarded gates in Busia or in Nairobi’s 'mbwa kali' estates.
Wako still has a chance to spread the light – to illuminate paths for those who never had opportunities to be as endowed as the Smiling Senator.
These many have no medical insurance, no income, no savings, no medical packages from employers, and no shoulders to lean on. They are lonely in a crowd, in a callous, and dehumanised world.
Wako’s post-coronavirus infection testimony speaks for many without saying a word for millions of Kenyans who suffer silently. These many Kenyans have no one to speak for them. Wako can speak for the suffering many without spending a cent from his pockets.
Wako’s post-coronavirus infection testimony, which is yet to pick up above 50,000 views on YouTube, about two weeks after airing on KBC TV, is outstanding more in what the Smiling Senator does not say.
Wako, a pensioner with generous medical insurance, inherited wealth, and possibly massive personal and family investments, is complaining of the cost of medication. What about millions of vulnerable Kenyans?
Wako can lobby for healthcare reforms. Wako can lobby for reforms at the scandal-ridden National Hospital Insurance Fund. The public insurer has the potential to deliver under reformed leadership.
When Wako was recovering, a woman from Ongata Rongai, Kajiado county, had a case familiar to many. Before admission to the Nairobi Hospital, she was expected to pay Sh600,000. She did not have the money. Two weeks later, the woman died, leaving a Sh6 million medical bill. Her friends and relatives are struggling to raise the money.
