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{
    "id": 1336224,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1336224/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 381,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. We are losing the objective of this Bill, which is to move Kenya from Maturity Level 1 to Maturity Level 3, at a minimum. We want to achieve Maturity Level 4. We have not achieved Maturity Level 3 because according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Benchmarking Tool, we allow pharmaceutical technologists to hold certain positions and to be involved in regulation-making. By including the word ‘pharmacists’ in the Bill, we are trying to ensure that we meet WHO standards. Kenya will then become competitive and sell its locally manufactured drugs to the entire world. We are only selling to Uganda and maybe Burundi at the moment. If we do not amend this Bill, Kenya's regulatory capacity will remain at Maturity Level 1. Countries at Maturity Level 1 are Somalia, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya. Currently, the countries that are at Maturity Level 3 are Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria. Within the next six months, Tanzania and Rwanda will be at Maturity Level 4. So, Kenya shall lag behind and never export drugs and vaccines it manufactures, all because we have not made sure that we are at WHO standards. So, this is not going to put anyone out of work. We are just trying to become a pharmaceutical manufacturing country that is capable of exporting. That is the bigger picture. We do not want Kenya to lag behind on this particular point. In fact, if you want to confirm, Kenya has been trying since the last Parliament to achieve this status. Let me bring the attention of Hon. Kaluma to what we call Kenya’s Strategic Health Plan. If you read it, you will realise that we have been trying to achieve that since the last Parliament. And I must commend the Chairperson of the Health Committee because he is trying to make sure that we achieve something that we have failed to do in the last six years. And for that, I kindly persuade Hon. Kaluma to rethink and be guided."
}