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{
    "id": 1056890,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1056890/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kasanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13185,
        "legal_name": "Sylvia Mueni Kasanga",
        "slug": "sylvia-mueni-kasanga"
    },
    "content": "Clearly, enough is not being done. This points to our governance. This is because we always lament here in Senate how wonderful we are at drawing up policy papers and other kinds of papers. What happens to those papers? They are somewhere gathering dust, and not being rolled out. The Mental Health Bill being one of them. I have brought that issue here. Yesterday, I brought another Statement asking about the national plan of action against sexual exploitation of children in Kenya. A plan that had a roll out from 2018 to 2022 complete with budgets, yet not a single part of that policy has been rolled out. Madam Temporary Speaker, what is it that is making us not prioritize healthcare? I do not know. Sometimes I wonder. The Government has prioritized infrastructure. We have many mega infrastructures being rolled out, but our people are dying of ill health. They are suffering from ill health. It is not just cancer. There is mental illness, malaria, etcetera . However, we have mega roads infrastructure going on. Sometimes, you wonder prioritize issues. Would it not have been better if we first put the health of Kenyans first and make sure we have rolled out a universal healthcare that actually serves Kenyans, so that you can have a healthy population that can participate in making of infrastructure? Maybe if we had planned differently, it would be Kenyans rolling out this infrastructure. We would have strengthened the healthcare, education system and have our own engineers and contractors doing some of these works. I sometimes wonder how the Government prioritizes issues. I fear for us. This is because come next year, with the debt ceiling where it is, I fear that we may see instances where tax may be increased. After all, how are these loans going to be repaid if not just by tax? We should not forget that the Government has money. It uses tax. Where is the money to repay some of these loans? Where is the money that will roll out the universal healthcare? It will have to come from the pockets of Kenyans. Therefore, the issue of prioritizing healthcare, in my view, needs to be brought to the Floor a lot more. As I wind up, there is the issue of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and what it can cover. This is part of the universal healthcare system. We have had a lot of issues with NHIF; what it can or cannot cover. There again goes the kind of things that the Government needs to look into. NHIF should be made operational to cover all aspects of health, diagnosis, treatment and follow up. Not just for cancer, but for everything else. Madam Temporary Speaker, specific to cancer, I want to agree with (Dr.) Musuruve on what her recommendations in the Motion are. I want to say, yes, our cancer patients need this level of support and a lot more. I just want to add the conversation of food and diet. This is because, I remember Sen. Beth Mugo spoke about it. She is a cancer warrior, survivor and ambassador. She urges that we must go back to our roots with regard to quality of food. We are now in the era of processed foods. Science and statistics shave shown that the more processed foods you eat, the more at risk you are of getting cancer and cancer cells growing into your body. Sugar is known as one of the worst catalysts of cancer. In fact, they say sugar is food for cancer. There is a lot of literature on the internet on how you can eat well to avert cancer. When you speak to some of the cancer survivors, they will always tell you the kind of diets that they had to go into for them to either fight the cancer, go into"
}