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"id": 1157425,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1157425/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
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"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
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"content": "health. I know it also talks about having medical practitioners trained fully on mental health. However, I think a time will come when we will need to designate at least 47 hospitals in this country, one per county that deals purely with mental health. With the cost of living going so high, a lot of people are committing suicide; that is a form of mental health disorder. With the fuel prices now hitting the roof, with the cost of everything across this country going up, a lot of Kenyans are going through tough mental health challenges. Therefore, it is important. I know we in Azimio, one of our party leaders has spoken a lot about ensuring that he establishes a Level 5 hospital in each of the 290 constituencies or sub-counties. One of the things that will follow is to establish mental health facilities in the 290 constituencies or sub-counties. This is why we are pushing so hard and asking people to come and join our movement, the Azimio Movement because it will give us an opportunity to provide free healthcare in this country, which we did very well in this House. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am very proud that in this House we passed it. I am very proud of it as a Member of the Committee on Health. We played a key role in those amendments to ensure that we have affordable or rather free health care and of course, with Baba Care, it looks at the entire spectrum. It looks at mental health, own personal health and also the entire health of the country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Bill by the distinguished Sen. Kasanga will be one which will also be able to compliment the level five and level three hospitals that will be built across the whole country. I am always very skeptical when it comes to the Government policy in terms of health. I have been on record here saying that it is quite discriminatory. I hope that with this Bill, certain things will become straight. When you read the policy on health by the Ministry of Health, some areas where we come from will not even qualify to have a dispensary. Kenyans ought to really appreciate the work that we do in this House as Senators. Last week, apart from the Division of Revenue Bill, we passed the County Grants Bill whose name was changed to Additional County Allocation. Those grants are specifically designated to support health care facilities, Level Two, Level Three hospitals. Those are the grants we get. With this Act now in place, if it comes in place and I do hope that the distinguished Senators from the 47 counties; at least if we can get the number required which is 24, for us to pass this and then move it fast so that the President assents to it. This will be one of the legacies. The President will leave a legacy of having promoted free health care or affordable healthcare or universal healthcare. We hope that the next Kenyan President of Kenya the Rt. Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga will continue with the kind of work that the current President has done in the healthcare. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I support this, I want to remind Kenyans that this House, the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, has got amazing talent. It has got people who are professionals. The work that Sen. Kasanga has done, sometimes it actually takes us “a bay” because I did not know that people can come up and really think like this. I also want to really appreciate our Clerks, Dr. Christine Sagini, our legal counsel, her name is Ms. Sombe Toona from Taita Taveta County, for the amount of work and dedication she put in. I particularly also thank the Director of Legal Services, Dr. Okello, for the work that he does. When we propose any changes to the law or even"
}