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{
"id": 1485013,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1485013/?format=api",
"text_counter": 275,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you. From the onset, I support this Community Health Workers Bill, (National Assembly Bill No.53 of 2022), as proposed by the great Member for Ndhiwa Constituency, Hon. Martin Owino. This Bill is seeking to include community health workers who are serving now as volunteers, into the Government payroll. This means they will be earning a regular stipend rather than how they serve the community just as volunteers. It also seeks to provide a legal regime for the recognition of those providers of community health services as professionals in this country. The Bill is providing that a council will regulate the health workers. This is very important because the community health workers' council is the one that shall maintain a register and keep a record of all registered community health workers. It is also mandated to advise the cabinet secretary on community health matters. The council, as proposed in the Bill, shall establish a professional code of conduct that will be undertaken by those community health workers. This is very important because we need a professional code of conduct that will be regulated by the council so that, in the event that any of them behaves in a way that is not in tandem with community health practices, just as we have with doctors and nurses, legal and professional action can be taken against them. Most importantly, this Bill is also providing for a requirement for particular certification. In this case, it is requiring that the community health promoters get a certificate in community health, psychology and counselling, social work development, HIV guidance and counselling, testing, immunisation, community development and health education. This is very important. Remember, when they were being recruited, there was no specification that they needed to have a particular certification. With the introduction of the Bill, I am really hoping for a number of things. Once the council is established or even before, they are going to partner, for example, with our KMTCs. Like in Molo Constituency, we have a KMTC Campus in Molo Town. Even long before this Bill becomes law, I am hoping that institutions will start a programme to go and train community health workers on particular skills. By the time this Bill is coming into law, they will have acquired the skills. They are going to perform their roles as community health workers better, having undertaken the requisite professional training. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I was trying to find out what best practice is among our peers and what they are doing very well. Rwanda is one of the countries that has come up with a very effective community health workers programme. What also stands out in the programme for Rwanda is that it has performance-based incentives. This ensures that there is proper accountability from the people and making it data-driven. Instead of just having community volunteers in the village, there are performance-based incentives about their performance. They get a particular incentive when they perform in particular standards. India bases their payment system on specific health outcomes. For example, immunisation. Remuneration for community health workers in India is based on real outcomes on health. One is given a target of how many immunisations to foresee and how many safe deliveries to oversee. Therefore, the incentive is based on that. I am highlighting this so that when the council is operational, it can see how to pick those best practices and have Kenya having the best of those practices. For Brazil, they integrate public health systems with a team of a doctor, a nurse, and a community health worker. For every team of those community health workers in Brazil, they have a nurse and a doctor. They also have an elaborate programme on the management of chronic diseases. We will save many burdens to most of our families if we found a way of having a community-based system at the village level to help with the management of chronic illnesses. When a family member gets a chronic illness that is incurable, for example, they are forced to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}