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{
    "id": 1151464,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1151464/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 379,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Today, I saw one of the leading contenders for the presidency talking about exorbitant interest rates that are charged on mobile loans. Unfortunately, that candidate made the wrong assumption that by reducing the interest rates, you will be able to double the economic growth. Reducing the interest rates is more of an equality management process. It does not follow that when you reduce it, you spur economic growth. You just get to bridge that inequality. That was not the subject of this Bill. Let me come back to the Bill. Telemedicine has got a lot of potential in Kenya. We have got shortage of consultants and skilled experts in various ways. As we had argued earlier, we have got 47 counties with each county trying to have all the consultants domiciled in those counties. The resources that go to counties are not sufficient for each county to have all the sets of skills that are required to deliver services to a specific county. It will follow then that we must have a pool of highly trained professionals sitting somewhere that can be tapped into by the county governments. Through telemedicine, it will be possible for someone to sit at the Ministry of Health headquarters or at Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital to provide consultancy services to a hospital in Marsabit, Turkana and Kwale. Drones have been used with a lot of success in places like Rwanda. I see the application of drones and manned aerial vehicles in parts of the country that have got infrastructure challenges. The islands of Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean, the far-flung parts of the country, like Northern Kenya--- We do not have adequate blood banks. In the Nyanza region, you will be surprised that we only have a blood bank in Kisumu. Therefore, when a mother requires blood in Sena on Mfangano Island, then that blood has to be brought by road. By the time the time that blood gets to the point where it is needed, chances are that the mother would have passed on. Something else that our hospitals do not stock is anti-venom medication. In many parts of this country, you still have human wildlife-conflict, such that if you got into an encounter with a venomous snake, then, the anti-venom has to be procured and sometimes it is from the defunct provincial hospitals. By the time the anti-venom reaches, that victim would probably have died. However, with the use of drones, we can reduce the turnaround time greatly. I do hope that the regulations that were brought by the Civil Aviation Authority on unmanned aerial vehicles are not those regulations that will stifle innovators in this area. There is a group that is currently doing a test run in Kisumu County, and I have also met a group of innovators who are willing to do a test run on the use of drones for distribution of pharmaceuticals and blood in Homabay County. I welcome and encourage them to use Homabay as a test bed for this innovation. We must move to an Amazon -like system of procuring medication. This House has given the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) a lot of latitude to do things. Unfortunately, KEMSA is not utilising the goodwill of this House. Every governor you meet and talk to tells you about the inefficiencies at KEMSA and delays by KEMSA to fulfil orders. Of course, KEMSA also complains about payment, but what if we adopted the"
}