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{
    "id": 1337027,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1337027/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 239,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "South Mugirango, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Silvanus Osoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I also echo those who have spoken ahead of me and support this particular Bill at the outset. Just like my colleague and learned Senior Hon. Otiende has said, I agree with everything except a few: First, it is important for us to start defining our Bills differently or the bodies we choose to manage particular issues of our country differently. This Bill is the Kenya Drugs Authority Bill. If there is a way, sometimes we need to think beyond appearing like we want to authoritise everything. It can be a service, like the Kenya Drugs Service something. So that is not just an authority but a service that also offers other things, not just regulations. But be that as it may, Hon. Temporary Speaker, “drugs” is a general term. Human beings use drugs, but animals also use drugs. We have got animals, and the science is the same. The scientists go through the same training. It is only that one is meant for a human being and another one for an animal. So, the separation or exclusion of veterinary drugs from this Bill is incorrect. Even as we go to the next step, the Committee should consider, just like Hon. Otiende has said, everything including the veterinary drugs. These things of saying it is regulated differently as the Bill is currently… I hear Hon. Milly say it is there but not in this particular Bill. That it should be regulated differently, and it should be included when we go to the next reading. There is a tendency of the “wannabe’s” in a particular career - and I say this with tremendous respect - pushing to be placed at par with the people who are ambitiously focussing on achieving their goals. For instance, you will get a clerk in my law firm who wants to be called wakili or an advocate. That is the justification this Bill is also providing: A pharmaceutical technologist wants to be at par with a pharmacist. If you define them within the same line as a pharmacist and a technologist, their roles are distinct, and even their training mode is different. One is just basic, and the other goes through extreme in training. This justification of trying to put the “wannabe” of a particular career at par with those who have gone steps higher in training should be reviewed. Even as the Committee looks at that, it should focus and find a way to push and ensure such roles are distinct. As we look at this, it is important for this Bill and the people who manage the matters of drugs to be keen on what is happening. We currently have too many quacks in different professions. What is now in the public domain is quacks in the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) or lawyers out there. People who pretend to be advocates and have never attended any law school. It is worse when those quacks also practice over-the-counter sale of the medicine. You can imagine what will happen when somebody prescribes the wrong medication to you, and there is no reverse and there is no spare for your body. As we look at this, we must find a way to have most of those quacks in professions… People have sacrificed going to school, studying hard and opening businesses in pharmacy. Yet, somebody comes to collect a license for another person who has not gone to school and then decides to wear a dustcoat and call himself a doctor or a pharmacist, selling and prescribing drugs. Those are the people you hear when you go to their pharmacies when you say you have a stomach ache, they tell you it is H.pylori, and they give you some kits without proper medical check-ups. As we look at this whole thing, it is important for us to be keen on that. Those quacks are in the villages. I have seen too many in my constituency, small chemists 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."
}