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{
    "id": 1130093,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1130093/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I will now turn to the third frame which I have used to organise the achievement of goals in my administration. I call it the restoration of dignity and it is a campaign against the three enemies that were identified by our forefathers, namely: ignorance, poverty and disease. The Founding Fathers of our nation defined dignity as freedom from want and fear. They taught us that there is no self-rule where there is no self-worth. Under this frame, I will report on the state of our water, health, education and security sectors. Where there is no access to clean drinking water, there is no dignity. That is why my administration prioritised and succeeded in providing 35 million people with access to clean water. When I took office in 2013, the entire country was served by just 99 public boreholes. In the last financial year alone, we have managed to sink 262 public boreholes. Today, more than 2,511 public boreholes have been sunk since 2013 - a 25–fold increase in the number of boreholes. In order to continue this widening of access to clean water, my administration has over the years invested over Kshs200 billion to implement various dams and other integrated community projects that will increase water supply to vulnerable communities. In the Nairobi Metropolitan area alone, the project is set to supply 41.3 million litres of water per day to an additional 2.1 million residents. This is critical because the ‘poverty of dignity’ is most pronounced in the water scarce economies of the informal settlements and in vulnerable communities. For instance, the average daily consumption of water per household in informal settlements in Nairobi is 40 litres. If the price of the 40 litres is Kshs40, a household will spend Kshs1,200 per month buying water only. This is 20 per cent of the income of an average family and, for the most part, the price of water has been higher than that of rent. This ‘poverty of dignity’ is well illustrated when one considers that the price of water for the rest of Nairobi is Kshs46 per 1,000 litres. Put differently, the dwellers of informal settlements have been paying 25 times more for water compared to the rest of Nairobi dwellers. This is why the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has set up 1,600 water points in the informal settlements to supply free water to the residents. This initiative has saved dwellers of those settlements up to 20 per cent of their incomes or approximately Kshs1,200. This is what I am calling freedom from ‘want’. Hon. Speakers, one of the most ‘indignifying’ challenges of our people has been the high cost of healthcare. There are many testimonies of how families have had to sell their ancestral land to cater for high medical bills. This not only rips them of dignity, but it also deprives future generations of ancestral address. The objective of my administration is to end this by providing 100% Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for essential health services starting this year. The constitutional right to healthcare is the entitlement that my administration has been consistently working to fulfill by investing in health facilities, medical equipment and human resources for health. Our success in this arena has been lauded internationally. According to the Health Care Index, which gives a single measure of the state of each country’s health system based on data provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Kenya ranks third behind South Africa and Tunisia, among the most improved healthcare systems in Africa in the year 2020. To achieve this, my administration has worked to increase access, affordability and availability of health care services for all Kenyans. Access speaks to the geographical availability of health care facilities and services. Affordability speaks to both the cost of health care services and the ability of Kenyans to pay for those medical services. Availability speaks to the extent to which our health care facilities have the necessary resources to meet the health needs of Kenyans. 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."
}