Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1426227,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1426227/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kibwana",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 277,
        "legal_name": "Kibwana Kivutha",
        "slug": "kibwana-kivutha"
    },
    "content": "Our young people need to have testing kits at all times. The Government should invest in and build capacity on genomic equipment. The footprint is big since there is no need to bring new equipment. The country invested so much during COVID-19 pandemic in genomics. The systems are there, and we only have to use them. It only buys the cancer screening kits and capacity training required for cancer. I hear there is a Rapid Diagnostic Kit (RDK) that has come. Nonetheless, they are still being tested. I urge the Government to invest in this. Once made available, you will not need to go to the hospital; you will have the RDK. I want to believe it is like the pregnancy and COVID-19 tests we had. We should use biomedical engineers to operationalize, install and train Kenyans. This should be done across the country. I am sure we will achieve our goal. The equipment is there, but it is not serviced. We need to invest in doctors. I will speak on genomic testing. This should be the national algorithm for early screening. Someone told me that the second or third killer disease in Kenya is cancer. We are not even talking about HIV/AIDS. Our focus is just on cancer. We are told that if you do not get enough sleep, you are bound to get cancer. The same applies to your eating habits. We have to go back to our traditional foods to avoid such. There is also precision medicine, which generally identifies specific drug targets. Once we have the genomic map of the country, this will help in terms of precision medicine. Precision medicine targets specific drugs. It leads a doctor to exactly what they want to test or diagnose. People from 28 to 51 years are the ones who drive our economy. About 20 per cent of those who die are young people. There is a time when most Kenyans were rushing to India to go and do Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans. It is unfortunate that it is only Aga Khan University Hospital and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) that do PET scans. It is painful and sad at this time and era. I am wondering what the Government is doing about it."
}