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{
    "id": 1496931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kavindu Muthama",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13733,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Kavindu Muthama",
        "slug": "agnes-kavindu-muthama"
    },
    "content": "They are not getting the help that they were getting before. They cannot even afford money to pay for accommodation. So, they are going to college and loitering around during daytime and going to look for abandoned places to go and sleep because they cannot afford. I can never vote for this Bill to continue because what are we telling those students who cannot afford school fees right now? They have no food to eat, they have nowhere to sleep, yet we are sleeping comfortably and here we are making laws to continue oppressing them? The second reason I cannot vote ‘yes’ for this Bill to outlaw fundraising is that most of the patients have hospital bills and cannot afford. We have seen them actually being made prisoners in hospitals, even government hospitals. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into Machakos hospitals, Level 4, Level 5 and Level 3, and found patients being detained for lack of payments of their bills. Some of them, even if they are detained in that hospital, for a whole year they can never pay. The hospital, maybe the governors also have bills to put up, so they retain them. Unless medical healthcare has been made free in this country, I can never vote ‘yes’ for such a Bill because I know there are people who are really suffering. Some even die and they cannot even take their dead people to go and bury because they have bills in hospitals, not only in government hospitals, even also in private hospitals. This is a Bill we cannot be talking about right now. Kenya is not yet there. We hope to be there, but we are not yet there. The third reason that will make me not vote ‘yes’ for this Bill is how we are dealing with the hospital. Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) is not working completely. The other day I was called by one of my coordinators, telling me that she was admitted in hospital and she has been discharged. When they entered the SHIF number, SHA reported back to them that she has to remain in the hospital for the next five days for her to be discharged, yet, she is not on any treatment. I had to call and ask the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) officers why somebody was being detained in the hospital after they had been discharged. That is when she was released. The Social Health Authority (SHA) is not working. Therefore, this is a wrong time to bring such a Bill. If there is any Bill that we should be discussing here now, it should be on how to regulate SHA to make it work and function properly. Even private hospitals are not accepting anybody with these cards, unless they make a cash deposit. We have a big problem in this country. If there is anything we should be discussing here this afternoon is how to solve those problems. First of all, make education free from Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) to university. Secondly, make healthcare free, especially in Government hospitals. Thirdly, churches and mosques have no money to build their infrastructure. Well- wishers build mosques. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you are a Muslim. You know well that there is no imam who can build a mosque. They have to depend on well-wishers to 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."
}