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{
    "id": 1092206,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092206/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mutunga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13495,
        "legal_name": "John Kanyuithia Mutunga",
        "slug": "john-kanyuithia-mutunga"
    },
    "content": "accessible. However, this cover is not very much known. Many of my colleagues haves spoken to that fact. I remember when we were talking about universal healthcare, the NHIF was considered as one of the major solutions. We went round educating people on the importance of having the NHIF medical cover; and the importance of paying for that cover. Each household is supposed to contribute Kshs500 a month. We even demystified the fact that Kshs500 is not a lot of money because somebody can earn that money or even much more from casual labour. Many people do not know about the NHIF. The first thing I wanted to see in this Amendment Bill is whether the Committee has looked at the possibility of ensuring that the NHIF has a huge component of sensitisation and public training or exposure on what it is, what it can do, where it can be accessed and how that can be done. I appreciate the fact that it is expanding the scope of coverage, including people who are even not in employment or those who are in their first employment. This is very important because it will deal with the danger that there is for young people who may be confronted with difficult situations arising from diseases and they do not have a way out. I am happy to note that there will be voluntary coverage of the youth. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to our youths to look at this cover as an important one. It will help them in situations that may demand serious medical attention. One of the things that have come out clearly this afternoon is the need for primary healthcare sensitisation, and the need for taking up primary healthcare as an important precursor to ideal health. Primary healthcare has to do with hygiene, what we eat, and the nutritional components of the food we eat. It also has to do with knowledge of what people would get into if they do not take serious care of themselves. It has to do with the choices and preferences that we have or make in terms of food. If we look at many countries in the world today, the rich countries have peculiar diseases that their children or younger people suffer from. There are diseases like obesity. A country like ours, which we may say is not rich or is maybe average, we have sections of the community where people suffer from lack of food. Based on the constitutional provisions and the fact that we are a growing and developing nation, one of the key components that we need to look into and that needs to be highlighted in this Bill is the need to provide proper nutrition for our people, so that we can prevent diseases instead of having to cure them. Curing a disease would require professionally trained people to diagnose it. It would require drugs or medication which we would have to import from outside the country. It is possible for us to save as a nation if we had serious and strong primary healthcare programmes that would enable our people to understand and also if we had provision of nutritional requirements for bodies, so that people can be protected from nutritionally-related illnesses. Why do we call this particular insurance service a fund? This is because our Government contributes some money into the scheme. It is also because there are contributions by both the people who are beneficiaries of the scheme and the employers who give people working opportunities. It is a fund. That particular fund also needs to be looked into very carefully. We are aware of the realities that there have been many huge scandals of monies being misused, misappropriated or taken away and put into processes that are not necessarily in support of the growth and development of the fund. I do not know what the amendments proposed by the Committee will do to ensure that the management structure and architecture of that fund and the way it will be handled will be fool-proof and will close up the loopholes that have been there in terms of ensuring that it is not easy to get the funds stolen. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the turn-around time for the NHIF cover is something that we need to consider very carefully. I hope the Committee has proposed specific guidelines 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."
}