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{
    "id": 1294416,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1294416/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "I would like to thank Sen. Omogeni even though he did not address the location from which he attended the virtual sitting. This Bill is long overdue because we have had the Kenya Health Management Information System (KHMIS) in existence. People who have worked in public sector, particularly in hospitals and dispensaries across the country, know that if you want to get raw data on health indicators and statistics in Kenya, the place you go to is the KHMIS. This Bill puts in place a legal framework for provision of digital health services and establishes a comprehensive integrated digital health information system. This is something that many insurance companies have done. However, they are doing it is silos because each insurance company that offers medical insurance has developed data warehouse and systems. Through this legislative initiative, we are saying that we need to have one national integrated database of data warehouse, which will allow us to have a picture of the health indicators of our nation. I agree with intention and the spirit. However, we must observe a few pitfalls. In Clause 16 we have tried to be prescriptive on components of an Integrated Health Information System. We should not make the mistake of legislating technology. This is the mistake we made with electoral laws. We legislated the kind of technology and the manner in which technology would be used in our elections. As a result, we are stuck with systems that have been passed by advances. There is something in technology we call Moore’s law that says, “computing power doubles every two years.” If we are going to maintain Clause 16, which should have been best served by regulations, we might end up with an outdated Health Information system because of the complications of amending laws. How I wish we were more descriptive rather than prescriptive on those technical aspects of the Health Management System. Secondly, we must have a candid conversation on management of information systems in Government. This is an additional integrated system; we already have Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS). For those who have been in county governments and some of the Committees we sit in, we have seen that whereas the system can work, the biggest problem is the end user capacity and readiness to use it. We have had systems like Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD), I talked of the KHMIS that does what we are trying to do here. Government must look at Information Communication System from an integrated perspective. We must strengthen the agencies particularly the ICT authority of Kenya to ensure that ICT is treated as a shared service across all Government departments rather than having ICT departments running integrated data bases in different Ministries; this leads to duplication and increases expenses. Thirdly, in terms of data security, the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is said to be the richest data bank in the world. The NHS has maintained"
}