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{
    "id": 1294957,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1294957/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 323,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13577,
        "legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
        "slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thank you, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Digital Health Bill. First and foremost, I thank my Members of the Committee of Health, and stakeholders who were engaged extensively in this Bill, for adopting and passing it. This nation is preparing to roll out the Universal Health Coverage (UHC). It is a program that has been on the desk of this Country for the last almost twenty years. However, we have not succeeded as a nation. I attribute past failures to a lack of consultations and engaging stakeholders; bringing on board the stakeholders and enabling legislation that will enable the Government to roll out UHC. The Digital Health Bill is a very important Bill for the rollout of UHC. Knowing very well that as a nation we do not have sufficient senior staff in terms of consultancies at the highest level of medical level, there is a need to share these very limited resources. This Digital Health Bill therefore will provide a framework of sharing medical information between patients, consultants and doctors from all facilities all over the country. It is not just the Digital Health Bill that we are going to pass and the creation of the Digital Health Agency that will be established. There are other programmes that the Kenya Kwanza Administration is rolling out to facilitate this process. As you are aware, through the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology (ICT), the national Government is rolling out the National Fiber Super Highway across the nation. This 100,000 kilometre fiber is going to facilitate the creation and establishment of systems that can be used for diagnosis at health facilities and instructions to consultants who will probably be sitting anywhere in this country. We all know very well that the majority of consultants are in urban areas of this nation like in Nairobi, Eldoret, Nakuru and Kisumu. However, we have counties which have very few consultants by virtue of the areas they operate from and there is need for the citizenry in those counties to access this specialized service. This is how health is going to be revolutionized using the little resources we have in terms of human resources and enabling all Kenyans to access that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there are concerns that have been raised with regard to the Digital Health Bill (National Assembly Bills No.57 of 2023) on issues of protection of data. However, this Bill provides for access and for the first time, this access will have to be applied and authorized and it will be under the custody of data protection. Therefore, the worries of Kenyans of their health data being accessed will be addressed by that. The Senate being protectors and promoters of devolution, the Digital Health Agency has a provision for a member to be appointed from the Council of Governors (COG) to take care of the interests of counties in that Board and to ensure that there is"
}