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"id": 1032426,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Baringo CWR, KANU",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Gladwell Cheruiyot",
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"legal_name": "Gladwell Jesire Cheruiyot",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to sincerely thank Hon. Kiai for being a pioneer in this journey towards finishing the stigma on COVID-19 infection. For a long time, people have been taking COVID-19 as if it is a disease of shame. I have been talking to my constituents and telling them that this is a disease like any other one as opposed to sexually transmitted diseases that people have feared for long. Currently, people can say: “I have HIV.” It is the only way we are going to really get rid of this disease. For as long as we are hiding, the possibility of infecting people day in, day out will continue increasing because we shall be mingling with people who pretend that they are not sick. So, Hon. Kiai, I am really grateful to what you have done. This NHIF issue is a great elephant in the house. It is a big thing. Sometimes, when you want to really blame anybody, it becomes a bit difficult, especially to some of us who have been in the medical field. We actually see the pandemic and start wondering what the way forward is. Currently, with the other diseases, we are doing harambees but for this one, it has become worse. It is very expensive. Like the Chair has said, people are forced to pay for PPEs as opposed to being given for free. When a doctor puts on a PPE, that is charged on the patient. Sometimes, you have about three or four people who are sick in a house. So, you will realise that, that patient is visited like three times a day. If you are three and three PPEs are used a day per person, twelve per day, it is quite expensive. Like people or Members are putting it, we need to come together and discuss the way forward. This should purely be a burden for the Government. We should not leave it to individuals. If we look helpless, our people will lose hope in this country. Looking at it now, the disease has crawled to schools. When we went to test in Baringo County the other day, we got 38 infected students at Kabarnet High School. If we have to leave that burden to those parents who are struggling even to pay school fees, you realise it is not workable. Citizens will be really hopeless. It is now upon this House to come to the rescue and sit together as Parliament, not only National Assembly, but with the Ministry of Health, the Departmental Committee on Health and discuss the way forward. When I looked at an interview which was going on yesterday by doctors and some experts, they were saying if we are not careful, we may by January have around 70 per cent of our people infected. That is scary. Looking at it, some doctors said when you have gotten the disease and you have some underlying condition, you are 90 per cent assured of not surviving. So, you have 10 per cent chance of living. Meaning it is no longer a disease we can look away from. It is a disease we need to put our heads together and discuss. Going forward we, as leaders, need to lead by example. We should try and reduce the rallies that we have. The way people handle microphones at home, we need to either discourage using microphones or have the masters of ceremonies giving directions on how to use microphones because this is one way in which our people will continue getting infected, because of shared The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}