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{
    "id": 1461188,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1461188/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "from making public servants stay in an acting capacity for too long so that these public servants can deal with their offices substantively. I will now focus on some of the duties that this Director General for Health needs to look at and the duties that he is supposed to undertake. I hope he is listening to me, do not be a failure in this Ministry and hide behind the Principal Secretary and Cabinet Secretary. We have had a situation in Kenya where an Inspector General of Police kept quiet when the security situation in Kenya was deteriorating, which to me, the Director for Public Health is the equivalent of the Inspector General of Police. We never saw him on television or talking to the people, and the country was going south. We want to see a strong Director General who will not be stationed in Nairobi moving around in the shadow of the Cabinet Secretary. You are supposed to be an advisor to the Cabinet Secretary and the Government. However, amongst your duties, you are also supposed to be an advisor to all county governments and the national Government. You should not be staying in Nairobi. For you to advise the Cabinet Secretary and the Government properly on matters of health, you should be out there listening, hearing and finding out what is happening on the ground. The Director General for Health in the USA, Dr. Fauci, was always on television explaining things during the COVID-19 pandemic time. He would go to the Congress and explain public health policies. He would explain to people what the national government was thinking. He would create measures or state health policies that would try to align with what the national government was doing. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, he was present. However, later on, he was questioned on some of the measures he had recommended to the public in the USA, but he was there at the time he was required. We expect the Director General to be present to the public. Right now, we have been hearing about a disease called Monkey Pox (Mpox) and that it has crossed over the border into Kenya. We have been hearing and seeing pictures circulating of horrible skin infection on social media that the first case has been spotted. We are being told through the social media that that it is Mpox, but we have not heard anything from the Ministry of Health, including from Dr. Amoth the Acting Director General. He has not been heard at all. He should not be an absentee landlord; he should come out and speak to Kenyans. This is what he is employed to do. He should not sit and hide. One of his responsibilities as he takes over that position is for him to tell Kenyans about infectious diseases. He should also be telling people how we can prevent infectious diseases coming from other countries into our nation. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are now being told about Mpox, but that has left me, Sen. Mungatana, my children, my constituents, my voters and all my associates at the mercy of social media. No one is speaking about this thing and the Director General is there, even if in an acting capacity. Dr. Amoth should listen to me. He should get out of the shadows of cabinet secretaries and politicians and come out to do his duty. Let us know that we have a Director General for Health so that we can hear and know where he stands officially and technically on issues. If this is fake news, then let me hear from my Director General for Health that there is no Mpox and it is not there. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
}