Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1092157,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092157/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Rasso",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13473,
        "legal_name": "Dido Ali Raso",
        "slug": "dido-ali-raso"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support this Bill. I thank our Departmental Committee on Health for coming up with what I consider to be formidable. Living in Kenya, the NHIF is actually like the last frontier. When we go to our constituencies, we are normally faced by two tasks. One is a parent coming to talk to you about education and the second is health. The health one is mind-boggling. Someone comes to you and says that they have someone in hospital and have run a bill of Kshs4 million or Kshs5 million or a very poor family has run a bill of Kshs300,000. On many occasions, I have realised that the NHIF comes to the aid of many of us and families that take their loved ones to hospital. The reason we are celebrating the NHIF is because our health system has crashed. It is there and not there. It is there for those who have money, resources and can use a logbook or a title deed to secure their treatment. For many who do not have jobs, are in low-paying jobs or are hustling, this scheme comes in handy all the time. More than at any time in the history of our country, health will become a premium area of concern to the citizenry of this country. Going forward, the needs and requirements for health services will go up and escalate all the time. I like the contribution of the former Principal Secretary, our Member over there, that during their time, the health system was not devolved. They controlled it from the centre and managed it to some extent. With devolution, we are seeing all the gaps. Doctors tend to take one direction of going to private hospitals. Many regions that do not have medical personnel end up taking their patients to other areas. Today in Marsabit, a lot of work has been done through devolution, but still most patients end up in Meru, Nyeri, Embu or Nairobi for specialised treatment because many of the special fields in medicine are not locally available."
}