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{
    "id": 119404,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/119404/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
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    "content": "Yes, we will do whatever it takes to help the families that were affected in terms of carrying out the burial arrangements. With regard to hon. Noor, as the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee dealing with prison matters, I would like to invite her to feel free to accompany us in the Ministry and look at--- I can confirm that some of the situations in our prison services are really wanting. We are doing whatever it takes to first of all tell our prisoners that they need to wash their hands after going to the toilet. However, what you call a toilet inside the room is an issue by itself. I think we have to consider that there is great need to improve the prison cells in this country. That is a matter that comes with budgetary implications. We will be talking to the Treasury. I know that hon. Noor and her colleagues in the Departmental Committee are very supportive of us doing something. We are even looking at possibilities of doing some model prisons on the basis of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT). However, we have not reached a stage where we can privatize the Prisons Service. If we can privatise like it has been done in the United Kingdom (UK) and a few other countries, I am sure that the standards of hygiene will similarly improve. Having said that, we are doing the best we can within the available resources to make sure that we contain any situation as it arises. In this case, I visited the affected prisoners at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and found that the problem was not restricted to Kamiti Maximum Prison. The healthy carrier I referred to may have come from places like Gikomba where there are cases of cholera outbreak. Other places where there is an outbreak of cholera are Dandora and Mathare. When we visited the KNH, we found 15 cases compared to 16 cases from Kamiti Maximum Prison. Therefore, you can see that the problem is national. I was in Lodwar the previous two days when some media houses reported that there was an outbreak of cholera in Lodwar Prison. I would like to say that, that was not the case because there was a general outbreak of cholera in Lodwar Town, Turkana. I called the Ministry of Medical Services from Lodwar and they sent more drugs but I discovered to my amazement that even the fluids that are used to treat cholera patients were not available. The officer in charge of medical services had to go to Kiambu to collect the little he could get in order to save some lives. This problem has to do with procurement in the Government and we should give priority to health. When I talked to the Minister for Medical Services, Prof. Anyang’-Nyong’o, he agreed with me that there is need to provide enough funds to our public hospitals. I think there is a big problem which not only affects the prisoners but all Kenyans."
}