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{
    "id": 1276617,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1276617/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 228,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiambu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Waithaka",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Yes. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, aware that Article 43(1)(a) of the Constitution provides that every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health including the right to health care services; further aware that the relationship between health and education plays a significant role in school attendance rates; concerned that the negative effects of poor sanitation such as parasite infestations, particularly among school children lead to anaemia, stunted-growth and other salient problems which in turn lead to low school attendance and impact education standards; recognising that according to research, school-based deworming is one of the most cost effective interventions that provides a huge range of holistic and social benefits, such as increased school attendance and healthier kids who do better in school, while utilising already existing school structures in administering deworming treatments to school pupils; recalling that previous programmes conducted by the Ministry of Health in partnership with a non-governmental organisation called Evidence Action have only been piloted in a few selected counties and that the deworming efforts have been uncoordinated and dependent on external support with no clear policy or budgetary framework. Now, therefore, this House urges that the national government, through the Ministry of Health, develop a national policy on deworming school-going children as a crucial part of mainstreaming healthcare access in the country. Hon. Temporary Speaker, intestinal parasitic infection is regarded as a serious health public problem and amongst the most common infections affecting human beings in the world. According to WHO worms infect more than one-third of the world’s population. When Kenya started this programme in 2009 only in some parts of the country, there were about 5 million children suffering from intestinal parasitic infections. In 2021 alone, a total of 2.1 million aged between 2 and14 years were successfully dewormed by the Ministry of Health in the Western parts of Kenya. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Standards, Economic Survey 2022, we have a total of 10.3 million students in primary school and a total of 3.7 million in secondary schools. This, therefore, means that we have a clear policy on how to do it. We can actually deworm more numbers and, therefore, ensure more children have access to affordable health care. Article 43 of our Constitution guarantees a right to the highest attainable standards of health which is a state of complete physical, mental, social and emotional well-being and not merely being without disease. The objective of this Motion, therefore, is to ensure that the Ministry of Health comes up with a clear national policy that will see that school-going children are dewormed on a regular basis so as to keep them safe while at the same time ensuring that 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."
}