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{
    "id": 141121,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/141121/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 233,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Shebesh",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 377,
        "legal_name": "Rachel Wambui Shebesh",
        "slug": "rachel-shebesh"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I would like to support. As I support, I would like to raise a few issues. The first issue I would like to raise relates to national hospitals and especially, the Kenyatta National Hospital. For years, scandals have ridden this hospital. We have read about scandal after scandal. However, I must say that of late, we have been impressed with the work that the Kenyatta National Hospital is doing. The burden on Kenyatta National Hospital is too much. I would like to speak as a woman and say that district hospitals must be improved so as to relieve the pressure on the Kenyatta National Hospital. When pressure is relieved on the Kenyatta National Hospital, it will not only improve the services offered in this biggest hospital, not only in Kenya but also in the region, but it will also allow the district hospitals to be more relevant to the people they are serving. There is no point of having a district hospital that has no x-ray machines and cannot conduct basic surgeries and yet all the machines are taken to the Kenyatta National Hospital. If some of these machines were taken to the district hospitals, we would see a great improvement in the health services. I want to speak about the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). Last week, as the Chair of the PIC spoke here, it was a shame to hear the kind of money that is lost through the NHIF. This money would help us have free access to reproductive health for women if well managed. To hear that Kshs2 billion was collected in a certain year and only Kshs713 million went into healthcare and the rest of the money is unaccounted for and lost in fraudulent deals, it is a shame. It is a shame to continue talking about such amount of money being paid by taxpayers to a Fund which cannot be managed well. We have been crying for free reproductive health for women for very long because issues of reproductive health are not the making of a woman but are our genetic making that requires that free medical services be given to women. Why do I say that? Without a healthy nation, with healthy women, we cannot develop. I say this convinced that statistics have shown that healthy women population in a country is a developing nation. We are back to a situation where women are dying while giving birth. Instead of improving the reproductive health services for women, we have gone back. The issue of family planning continues to lay heavily on the support of donor community rather than money that is put in by the Government to ensure that we have proper family planning services available to our womenfolk. I would like to ask that we look critically into putting money directly, through the Budgeting process to the issue of reproductive health for women and not to wait for western countries to support us in this issue. This is really a national issue. There are many other Votes which can be given support by the West but not definitely, issues such as those of family planning. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to conclude by speaking about something which I have watched on news of late. This is about Chinese herbal medicines."
}