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{
    "id": 1518692,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1518692/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 157,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I also thank Hon. Kimilu for bringing this important Bill on social workers. During our time at the university, we studied sociology as a subject, while others studied social work. This meant that they specialised with social matters. People have been trained for many years in our universities. The proposal by Hon. Kimilu is to establish a regulatory framework so that social work is regulated. I appreciate him because such a Bill has never come to the House. We have many Acts of Parliament which regulate different disciplines. We have laws for lawyers and doctors. The medical field in particular, has many laws regulating it. There are laws for nurses and community health workers, which we recently passed. This is a step in the right direction. This Bill is important because we will know the qualified social workers in this country. Social workers play a very key role in matters relating to our people. For instance, with the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), there have been controversies in terms of assessment using mobile phones. Once you fill in your details, SHIF establishes how much you should pay. Some people are complaining that they are given very high figures while others get low figures. Many people have attempted to manipulate the system to get a low amount. Naturally, that should be the work of a social worker who can conduct an assessment based on the characteristics of a household and determine how much they should pay. As Hon. Mwenje has said, social workers are used in hospitals to determine the capacity of families to pay. Many times, when my people end up in Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), they see how helpful social workers are. They talk to the families and recommend waivers of bills. This has been of much assistance to most families. Therefore, this Bill is very important. There is a caution I would like to be applied in the new way of doing things. In the earlier days, some associations were drawing money from the Consolidated Fund. Since, this is a membership association, I request Hon. Kimilu to ensure that they do not draw money from the exchequer. They should use their contributions to sustain that association. All said and done, this is a very important Bill. We must thank Hon. Kimilu for coming up with this initiative. I look forward to it being fast-tracked to become an Act of Parliament."
}