Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1029492,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1029492/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Mwaura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13129,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Maigua Mwaura",
        "slug": "isaac-mwaura"
    },
    "content": "When you look at Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital, it is overwhelmed. Beds are actually full. I was the first in this country to declare that we had about 115 Intensive Care Units (ICU) beds by the time COVID-19 hit us. You could see Governor Oparanya and Cyrus Oguna, the Government Spokesperson, contradicting me. They wanted to show as if I was a liar and they were saying we have 300 ICU beds. There is this nebulous statement that governors and the National Government are using called ‘Isolation beds’. You keep on hearing of “Isolation beds”. What is the difference between “Isolation beds”, a normal hospital bed and a COVID-19 ICU bed? The politics of ‘tenderpreneurship’ could not even have our county governments and the National Government procure ventilators from the students who made them in Kenyatta University, my former university. They must procure from outside, one ventilator costs Kshs5 million. So, you create some scarcity so that people can benefit from the gravy train. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is serious. At some point, this disease was seen to be a disease of colour. It was seen as a white man’s disease. They celebrated and they said that we are going to die and be buried in gunny bags. Certainly, this second wave is more serious. I saw China trying to prostitute itself by saying they have managed the COVID- 19 better. They should be ashamed of themselves because it emanated from them. If there are containment measures, they should as a measure of public good, teach other countries to contain this pandemic because it started from Wuhan; it is a Wuhan disease. It is also an indictment on our governance process and the whole issue of universal healthcare. What we should be asking ourselves is not to add another chapter in the book of lamentation, is to call to action. In fact, the tenure for the Ad hoc Committee on COVID-19 should be extended. Yesterday, Sen. Kasanga gave a report that was tabled on 29th September, but I would ask that this Committee should continue because it is the only repository within the legislature that is looking into this matter on a day-to-day basis so that we can hear submissions of what is happening in the country. One of the things that we need to ask ourselves is, in the ensuing period because we have had COVID-19 since March and this is November, what are the remedies? What are our research institutions such as the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) doing? By now, we should be having some mitigation measures that assuage the effects of COVID-19. However, I think since we are so used to getting opportunities and becoming “disasterpreneurs”, everybody looked at how to siphon out masks. By the way, have you noticed that all of a sudden the price of masks has gone up again? Carrefour was selling a packet at Kshs500, now today morning it was Kshs1000. Those ones that we were buying in the streets at Kshs50, soon we will be buying them at Kshs100. We are a country that has perfected the art of benefiting from other people’s miseries. It happened with the maize scandal, the National Youth Service (NYS) and the Anglo-leasing and we need to ask ourselves when this haemorrhage, seepage and leakage of public resources will stop. 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."
}