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{
    "id": 1103503,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1103503/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 546,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, thank you for giving me an opportunity to make my contributions to this Motion. I will commence by congratulating Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve for extending sympathy in her work to victims of cancer and people who are suffering from cancer and to remind us that we are all potential candidates for that suffering. As we sit in the comfort of this House, as others sit in the comfort of public offices, it is not just about the individual who is suffering from cancer. It is about those who have feelings for that individual. If you have a patient who is cancerous in your family and you take time to sit next to them to go with them through the suffering that is visiting them, the subsequent suffering that you will get involved in may inhibit or lower your productivity. Madam Temporary Speaker, you may have a child, spouse, brother, sister, aunt, grandmother or parents who are suffering from cancer. In this country in households, there are very few people who are engaged in productive work. Not because they do not want to be engaged in productive work but because productive work is not found. These are hardworking Kenyans. Like in Migori County where I come from, we have people who are fishermen and women by profession. We have cane cutters, gold diggers literary digging barrows to look for gold and crushing rocks to extract gold from them. We have people who ride bicycles long distances to look for cows in Tanzania. We have women and men who do household chores. They wake up at 5.00 a.m., work the whole day, old and young women carrying children on their back. They work 24/07. However, because these kinds of work do not give economic returns, they are poor but they are people and they are part of our families. Madam Temporary Speaker, you will find that a family unit is poor. Where we are in this House, we have poor members of our family who are the majority. When we have a patient who has cancer, we as members of this family are called upon to assist them. When they have colon cancer and chronic diseases, this assistance must continue for life. It makes you unproductive and suffer emotionally. It makes the entire poor families connected to you, your church, village and family to suffer. To ease this burden and suffering because of the structure of African families, it is important that the Government gets involved. The Government must get involved not just in the manner in which the Motion is structured but in the assistance at the time of diagnosis, treatment and support for your entire life. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am talking about cancer because this is the context in which the Motion is brought but there are other chronic ailments like renal failure, diabetes and many others that are not respectful of your social status. You are poor, there it is. You are, rich there it is."
}