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{
    "id": 1357512,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1357512/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 61,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "a, the loss of life due to snakebites is quite sad. I lived in Australia, a country that has the top 10 most poisonous snakes in the world, where you find that in a year, they can go with no recorded case of a person dying as a result of a snakebite. It breaks my heart to hear of the girl who has died of a Black Mamba bite, whose venom kills you within half an hour if unattended to. The challenge we are facing in the country is that for a long time, we have not instituted systems of prevention and treatment. You will find that there is no anti-venom in many places. In Kenya, we do not produce any snake anti-venom. It all comes from South Africa, India, Europe and other countries. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that it was very important to be self- sufficient. One of the first duties that I have made, was to go to a research institute and centre in Naivasha. We have started the process, together with others, to produce our own snake anti-venom in this country. There should be in every health centre, which is within 10-kilometre distance of everybody in this country, snake anti-venom with a properly trained person who can take care of that. Many people die from snakebites because of lack of treatment on time. Snakes do not have to kill you if you get treated on time. If it is a cobra, you have six hours; Puff Adder, you have got quite a number of hours and for Black Mamba, depending on your age, you have 30 minutes to two hours. So, if there is good system, which we are putting into place with the Ministry of Health, we hope we will be able to take care of this. On the question about compensation for snakebites, these were part of law and schedule of compensation claims. This was removed in 2018 as a result of fraud that was existing because people were falsely claiming to have been bitten by poisonous snakes. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}