Dr Shein: Free medical services for all coming

By Felister Peter

Dr Ali Mohamed Shein

The ruling party’s (CCM) presidential candidate Dr Ali Mohamed Shein yesterday announced that he would offer free medical services to the Island residents in the first two years of his term and a monthly pension of 20,000/- to elders aged 70 years and above.

 

He said the pension will be offered to elders effectively April, next year.

 

He said without a healthy population it would be difficult for the government to engage them in economic activities. He said with the current science and technology world, every nation must strive to educate its people and ensure a healthy population in order to cope up with the world’s development pace.

 

He made the promises when addressing a rally at Chokocho grounds in Mkoani District, South Unguja Region. He however announced to shelve all the contributions for primary and secondary schools in both Unguja and Pemba.

 

According to Dr Shein the government cannot fail to provide free medical services to 1.4m/- people. 

 

He said free medication is possible as the government is expecting to enhance monthly revenue collections to a tune of 800bn/-.

He said plans are underway to construct a new referral hospital at Bigui area in Unguja to ensure reliable and quality service.

 

Dr Shein said currently a doctor in Zanzibar attends to 9,000 patients compared to the ration of 30,000 patients per doctor in the past five years.

 

Elaborating on education, he said they are working on a special programme to feed primary school pupils in order to increase enrolment. He said the primary school enrolment will be increased by 100 per cent in the year 2020 from the current 13.7 per cent.

 

“Apart from free education, we are going to construct a new University at Dole in Unguja with financial support from the government of Saudi Arabia and construct two major vocational training institutes at Mtambwe in Pemba and Makunduchi in Unguja,” he noted.

 

The candidate also promised to increase the higher learning institute’s fund budget so as to increase the number of students from the current 2,658 to 22,404 in five years. He said girls will be given priority especially those taking science subjects.

 

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Pandu Ameir Kificho said Dr Shein was endorsed by the party to vie for the second term  due to his good working record. He said Dr Shein who is the current President of Zanzibar has recorded successes in economic, social and political developments.

 

Zanzibar Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Ormary Yusuph Mzee insisted that it is during Dr Shein’s era that peace has been stabilised in Zanzibar.  He said: “Dr Shein is a honest and competent leader”.

 

According to Mzee, Dr Shein who is CCM’s Vice Chairman (Zanzibar) ensured equality for both Pemba and Unguja residents. He said the government has already purchased a new vessel to offer services between the two Islands.

 

The Minister for Empowerment, Social Welfare Development, Youth, Women and Children, Zainab Omar Mohamed adviced the residents to keep their voter IDs and come up in big numbers on the election day. She urged them to give a ‘yes’ vote to Dr Shein and his counterparts Dr John Magufuli and his running mate, Samia Suluhu Hassan.