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{
    "id": 1104134,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1104134/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 143,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Gilgil, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Martha Wangari",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13123,
        "legal_name": "Martha Wangari",
        "slug": "martha-wangari"
    },
    "content": "the counter? How many are dying from those unprescribed and uncontrolled products? This issue has to be looked at holistically, in terms of getting healthcare close to the people. I have said it before and counties need to take note of this: we must separate the issue of primary healthcare and that of referral healthcare. Let us localise immunisation, family planning, malaria, and diarrhoea. All those things or ailments should be handled at the local level—in the dispensaries and the health centres. That would now ease or make it easy for referral hospitals to deal with more complicated matters that would be referred to them. So, I think we can look at it that way. I also want to talk about regulations. I say that because, in this country, even when we introduced the curfews and the restrictions in restaurants, we have seen corrupt people, maybe, in the police and regulatory institutions, taking advantage to also harass genuine people who are working and doing their business. Looking at the role of the Board, Part N says that the Board can appoint inspectors and order inspection of any premises. That is quite open-ended. If it is not regulated, it would amount to abuse and can easily be manipulated to just harass people who are doing genuine business. I hope this will come out clearly in the raft of amendments that have been referred to by the seconder of the Bill. Two years ago, I had an issue of hawkers at the Toll Station in Gilgil, where the Authority seized some items and destroyed them saying that they were substandard. There was no court order or any legal way of explaining to the people who were affected. The Authority burnt the items even before the affected individuals could have any recourse. Also, if you remember, just a few years ago, the President went and destroyed some drugs that had been seized and someone turned up with a court order. I have seen the issue of roping in the Judiciary in the Bill. Part 24 of the Bill gives a lee-way. It says that if someone has reasons to believe that a food item that a person has processed, manufactured or distributed is not in compliance with this Act or any law, that person shall immediately initiate procedures to withdraw the food item from the market. So, there has to be clear mechanisms of logging complaints on issues of substandard food items and withdrawal of the same that does not give room for witch-hunt arising from business rivalry. There should be no room for manipulation of the regulatory authorities to witch-hunt a person or a competitor. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the issue of food, we previously had sugar that was contaminated and maize with aflatoxin. Foodstuffs which are not good for human consumption adversely affect the health of human beings. Issues of food and medicine are interrelated but I think we should separate them so that we have a clear way of dealing with them separately in the Ministries responsible for agriculture and health, respectively. The role of the counties needs to come out very strongly. I say so because the Constitution, in Schedule Four, devolves agriculture and health. The implementers are mostly the county governments. Therefore, we must get away from centralising what has already been devolved to the county level. We can centralise the issue of policy but the implementation must bring on board the county governments and the relevant organisations at that level of government. I say so because when the health function is not working, we always blame the county governments. Therefore, in this case, we should retain the policy making function at the national level and leave implementation to the county governments. Recently, we were dealing with the issue of vaccines. Nobody in the world had a marking scheme on how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. It has really taught us a lot of things. Recently, there was uproar that some vaccines had been taken by one person or an interested party so as to start distribution. That is how we will lose the war on vaccinations in dealing with this pandemic. 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."
}