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{
    "id": 1012964,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1012964/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Parents have been given a week and that decision was done too quickly. Anyone with children below the age of 10 years will tell you that in those last six months, many have gained weight. They will need new uniform and a lot of interventions. I think the Committee on Health needs to look into that. Class Eight and Form Four are maybe where they were. With a properly structured community health system they would be able to have known that these are behaviors that have come out in society. We have seen increased cases of teenage pregnancy. There is need not just for sensitization but psychosocial support to our children. The best people to do that would be the CHVs. We to enable and facilitate CHVs across the wards and even lower into the villages. Those are the one who should play this role. Madam Deputy Speaker, we need to challenge the counties. Sen. Omogeni started a line of thought that he dropped along the way. I think it was because he was interrupted by his former Chair of the Senate Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and human rights. That line of thought is important. If we acknowledge as a Senate how critical community health is, in the next County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) I would urge the Senate of the Republic of Kenya to ring-fence allocations for CHVS in each county. There is no county that does not have community health volunteers but none is engaging them properly or giving them a stipend. Since the governors and county assemblies will not appropriate for them the Senate can ring-fence in the CARA of the next financial year resources for CHVs. We will be able to see a reduction in the health burdening terms of cost in less than two subsequent financial years. The health strategy is outdated, and I am sure Sen. (Dr.) Zani has done enough research. Policy papers in the Sessional Papers that came are outdated. That needs to be revived. The CS for Health together with county governments need to think about that critically. Today, we have around 60,00 community health workers with a reach of over 9 million households. If properly deployed, they will cover the whole country. Out of the 60,000, 10,000 are in Nairobi City County only. That is why I have calculated how much it would cost. Since this function has been transferred to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), I urge Gen. Badi and the Director Josephine to appropriate money for this. There is also my good friend, Mr. Oluga, who has been a doctor. He knows the interventions that have been done by the time a patient is coming to a health facility. Beyond the object of the Bill, Sen. (Dr.) Zani is talking about inclusivity and equity. During the debate we had on the revenue sharing formula, it was clear that the parameter of healthcare was measured poorly because a huge percentage of it was being measured on the number of visits to a hospital. There are counties with no hospitals to visit and a small percentage was on facility gap. When we are talking about equity and inclusivity, we need to think how we will develop these indices that tell us the need and burden of healthcare. There are some counties, for example, Makueni where because of their vastness and how spaced the facilities are, you do not have that number of visits for simple things that can be cured using herbs such as Mwarubaini and such things. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}