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{
    "id": 1522099,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522099/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 105,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "the border into Buteba and Tororo in Uganda, to get attention, yet we have hospitals. Busia is a frontier county, and not just a frontier county of any nature, but a frontier county to the East and Central Africa region, where we have got occasional outbreaks of very bad diseases like Ebola. My expectation would be that the national Government would be running serious laboratories and surveillance systems in Busia to protect the Republic from any entry of patients who might be carrying these contagious diseases. However, nothing is working. There has been no attention given. Madam Temporary Speaker, in terms of Mother and Child Care (MCC), our Level 4 hospitals are just death traps. Very many women in Busia County are dying in childbirth. Why should that be the case? This is the case because health is totally neglected. It has become an area for merchants to make wealth, to steal public resources, and it is very easy to steal through the healthcare system. So, I pray that this House considers some very stern measures to intervene in health. As regards human personnel, during the process of making the Kenya Constitution,2010 there had been created a National Health Service Commission to operate nationally to take care of the needs of medical personnel. The Parliamentary Service Committee in Naivasha removed the provision of the National Health Service Commission. It undertook in writing, and it is in the record, that Parliament would establish that Commission through legislation to take care of the needs of medical personnel nationally. Doctors could then move across the country and cross around to give them the chance to go on sabbatical leave and whatever. You will find that the county is so tiny for somebody who takes so long to train to comfortably operate in. So, the lack of interest in their work that most of the medical personnel exude is largely because there is hopelessness there. The chances of growth are not there because you are packaged into a small county, and you answer to people who may not even understand what your needs are. I would be urging this House that we consider going back and cashing that promissory note that we gave to the doctors. Parliament undertook to establish a National Health Commission so that doctors are not subjected to counties. It is in writing, the reports are there, we are now going to the 14th or 15th year since the promulgation of the Constitution, nothing has happened. As my contribution to this Statement, I would also urge that we look at the human resource, and how it is managed. It is very clear that the county governments cannot handle the human resources in the medical sector. Let the county governments maybe run the hospitals, but let us set up that Commission, which was removed by Parliament from the draft constitution, with an undertaking that they are going to establish that commission through an Act of Parliament. Let us proceed and create the equivalent of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for the medical sector, so that doctors can be hired centrally in Nairobi, dispersed across the country centrally, and transferred and moved across so that they can gain experience wherever and go on sabbatical leave, progress in their careers, have hope and be cushioned from the question of counties not having money and not being able to pay. 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."
}