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{
    "id": 1104138,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1104138/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "it is an issue of standardisation so that our products are not trusted just within but also outside the country. I was worried that we have not provided for one category that is significant. I have seen that we have made provision for herbal medicine. If you look at the medicines that are used for all manner of treatments, most of them are herbal. If you ask our forefathers, which you do not even need to… Even our parents know that we would be struggling with very major diseases that conventional medicines cannot cure. All that your grandmother tells you is to chew certain herbs and you are as fit as new. We have not equally invested in that. That is why I am happy with their definition of food, herbal medicines and therapeutic cosmetics. I am happy that we are investing in that as well. Kenya has become an end-user of therapeutic cosmetics. We should provide standards because there are things that are not allowed in other countries. In the United States of America (USA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not allow certain cosmetics that we use here in Kenya, especially for lightening skin. I do not know why our girls cannot just be okay with the beautiful skin colour that they have. However, because some people would like to lighten their skins and it is their right, how safe are those cosmetics? This is so that people do not suffer from different cancers merely because we did not provide standards. Again, as I had indicated, because I was away on parliamentary duty, I have not had time to exhaustively look at this. I will look at it, especially in reference to those core areas I have spoken about. I am very passionate about herbal medicines or medicinal plants. I did my first Masters in Intellectual Property Rights on plant genetic resources and realised that we are missing a lot in terms of the resources we have that we take for granted and that are amazing. Perhaps there may be a cure for COVID-19 in our medicinal herbs, but we do not invest in them. We take them for granted. I will look at this. I thank Hon. Pukose for bringing this Bill to better our standards and make us more marketable as a country and as a destination for medical tourism. I am hoping that we can use this together with other standards to elevate our country. Those standards include security and infrastructure. As Members of Parliament, whenever we go for benchmarking trips abroad, there should be something that comes out of that. It is embarrassing when you see countries that should not be where they are, or they should be competing at the same level with us, getting way ahead of us. Why? We have allowed corruption to take centre stage. Countries like Rwanda come to copy Kenya and implement what we have in our blueprints. They come and implement what we have in our laws. I encourage us to go beyond what we pass and ensure that we implement it. Otherwise, I support the Bill."
}