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{
    "id": 1084168,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1084168/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 325,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13179,
        "legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
        "slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Bill. I wish to thank Sen. (Dr.) Zani for sponsoring this Bill. We always say that prevention is better than cure. That means that community health workers are very important because they take care of the element of prevention by creating awareness of certain diseases and ailments in the community. This includes pandemics like that of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The importance of community health workers cannot be overemphasized. In some of the counties we come from, before devolution, these were the only people the communities knew as health workers. They actually used to be called doctors in those days. You can understand the pastoralist nature of moving from one place to another. It is not easy to maintain medical contact with such communities. That is part of their livelihood and they need to be served. Community health workers were the source of their information. In those days, the training and development of a curriculum was left to be developed by Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and sponsored programmes by the United Nations (UN). Even maternal healthcare and the delivery of children used to be handled by the community health workers. Because of all that, there were a lot of health issues that were addressed at that level. That is why when people criticize devolution, even with all its faults and governors not taking care of health properly, I believe that devolution is the best thing that happened to this country. After the devolved government, for the first time, marginalized areas like where I come from have seen hospitals with a doctor. Before devolution, Wajir County Referral Hospital never had more than two doctors. Right now, there are around 10 or 13 doctors. At least the county government is able to bring those people on board. I am not saying that devolution is a perfect system because we all know it has its own challenges."
}