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{
    "id": 1338358,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1338358/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 435,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute. I am a very happy man today. My two most cherished documents have come into law. We have just discussed the Facilities Improvement Financing Bill that we did in 2005 and we are discussing the Primary Health Care Bill now. The primary origin of this Primary Health Care Bill was the community health strategy. When I was appointed Director of Medical Services in 2003, Prof. Miriam Were, Prof. Dan Kaseje and I sat in the Ministry. Prof. Were had just worked on the first tried community health strategy in Kakamega. I asked how we could make it a national programme. We then wrote a Community Health Strategy which is basically what this is. What is this strategy that has been translated into this Bill? We looked at a community and approached it to develop a community unit comprising a fixed number of households. In this Bill, they have said less than 1000 households. We were talking about 100 households at that time. Each community unit was to be served by a community member who was elected by the community. We called them community health workers at that time. They were called community health volunteers later on. They are known as community health promoters now. This is still the same thing, and I support it. Why do we need community health promoters and primary health care? This is because people get sick because of the circumstances in which they live, the work they do, the food they eat and the environment around them. These are the social determinants of health. The best prevention of diseases is by addressing these determinants. For example, the germ-causing cholera is known as Vibrio cholerae, but you get cholera from drinking contaminated water. The social determinant here is the availability or unavailability of water. These are the things we need to look at the community level. Therefore, a community promoter living here is aware of these determinants and they can help prevent the diseases and promote healthy living."
}