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{
"id": 1419623,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1419623/?format=api",
"text_counter": 324,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
},
"content": "because this is a mother who is giving birth to a Kenyan, and we do not recognize that. This Bill recognises that. Now further, she goes on to look at the insurance that a maternal, newborn and child health care provisions are within reach. When I became a Member of Parliament of Eldoret East, we had a terrible problem because many people were delivering by the roadside. I know it is still going on in some places. Nobody cares where you deliver and it is up to you to look for your way out. Nonetheless, we know that even in times like we are in right now, with this flooding that is going on, some people are not rich and cannot access anything. Sometimes they cannot even access midwives, let alone the fact that the training of midwives went very low. This is because, for a very long time, we looked at midwives as those traditional women who had no value. It is now that we are seeing the value of the same women and we have many problems. The establishment of programmes to expand and improve the availability and access of maternal, newborn, and childcare services is something that we must take very seriously in this Senate. Why? As health is devolved, we should not restrict our access to these facilities to health centres, as we are told, and beyond. It is very important that any dispensary must have a maternity wing. It is just a delivery room and a place for the mother to rest after that. If we have a tradition of taking care of them at that level, then we are going to make a difference in the lives of these mothers. This again is because we have never looked at the mother. We have been looking at these Kenyans when they are grown up, they join the army, they become our police officers, teachers, professors and so forth. However, if we focus on taking care of the mother, then we are going to have a healthy nation. Without taking of how the mother is treated before birth and after, we will continue to treat diseases that should not be even around us. I am very happy with this Bill. We know that we are going into Community Health Providers (CHP) and that is going to be very helpful. The one thing that I want to again mention as far as this matter is concerned is maternity leave. The maternity leave in Kenya is completely haphazard. In the law it says, it should be a minimum of three months. In the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), it is 120 days, which is four months. Paternity leave in TSC is 21 days. When you go to universities it is 10 days. We need to regulate this. I am going to ask Senator to look for an area where she can bring in maternity leave. I propose that we have a standard of six months of leave. A mother is taking care of a Kenyan, not just a baby, but the baby that she delivered. Let us give value to the child because a child who is not taken care of by the mother will be unhealthy for a very long time. It does not matter whether it is the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) or whatever health care service we give, we will have problems. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know the time is over, but I am grateful. I encourage my sister to introduce six months maternity leave and we are good with this Bill. I thank you. 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."
}