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"id": 190125,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/190125/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Shakeel",
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"speaker": {
"id": 140,
"legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Motion. Many of my colleagues have spoken about the ills of mosquitoes and Malaria, so I do not want to repeat much of what my brothers have spoken so eloquently about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we were children, we had public health officers going around. We used to see them every week going with that back pack and spraying Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT). The World Bank and other people found that we could make DDT very easily and cheaply locally. So, they went around saying that this was not good. Thirty years down the line, they realized that they were wrong. DDT now is acceptable as an insecticide, yet the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation does not use it expansively. They use a more expensive insecticide which costs a lot of money. When I was a Mayor, we used to look forward to 1720 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 9, 2008 the former President and even the current President, coming to Kisumu because a week before that, suddenly the public health officers woke up. They brought smoking machines and an aeroplane from Eldoret or wherever. They would go all over and spray insects. For one month, we would be very happy. So, we would always look forward to the coming of the President. The reality is that it is quite easy, as the hon. Member who has just spoken has said, for us to do this locally. We have very good public health officers in Kisumu where Malaria is one of the most highly feared diseases. But many of them cannot do their work, not because they do not want to, but because they are not funded. They do not have the means, simple machines and money. They do not even have money for petrol. So, I think that is one of the things that we need to do. One of our colleagues talked about creating a special line item for eradicating mosquitoes in our Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). That is important and we could work on it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is anti-malarial drugs. We all know that between 60 per cent to 70 per cent of all anti-malarial drugs sold in this country are fake. That is a fact! How they come into the country, only God knows. But what the poor villagers go and buy is all fake. So, they cannot actually utilize the proper drugs. That is also one of the joint effects that we need to have. We need to have proper anti-malarial drugs. We also need to have sprays. I would suggest that DDT spraying is something that we need to look at and the public health officers need to be funded to do that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kisumu is now hosting the world known centre of disease control and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). They are spending millions of dollars to come up with anti-malarial vaccines. It is now nearly 15 years, but we have not heard anything. We are told that it is nearly there. We are wondering whether it is really there. We have not heard anything about this malaria vaccine. I would like to know what is happening about it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, furthermore, if people do not spray the pools of water, of course, the anopheles mosquitoes will breed there. So, sanitation is a very important aspect. The Ministry of Local Government has failed totally. You can spray all the pools of water 100 times or more, but if you do not have proper sanitation in place, then we are fighting a losing battle here. The municipal and city councils have even failed to cut grass! We need a consolidated effort on the part of city councils, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, the politicians and the citizenry. The role of the Chief Pharmacist or whoever approves drugs is very important. We cannot understand why malaria drugs are very expensive in this country compared to any other place in the world. My brother, mhe. Wetangula, just spoke about this. I visit Pakistan and other countries. Anti-malarial drugs are the cheapest in those countries. Those drugs are manufactured locally there. They can also be manufactured here locally, but for some reasons, we do not allow these things to be done. My colleague said the right thing. It appears like they do not want Africans to manufacture anti-malarial drugs. That is absolutely true. It does not require much to manufacture anti-malarial drugs! We have the facilities here. Some of the top anti-malaria scientists of this world are Africans and I have met them. We cannot be allowed to produce those drugs in this country. The ability and capability is there, but there are some people who are sitting up there getting a lot of money from these multinational companies not to allow drugs to be locally manufactured, thereby reducing their cost. That is one thing that we really need to address. So, we need a consolidated effort. It is not a one way thing. As much as I support this Motion, just spraying mosquitoes with insecticides is not the answer. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}