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"id": 211577,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Indeed, it is from an unlikely quarter. Let me begin by saying that I support the Vote of this Ministry. I want to laud the Ministry for the strides it has made in the last few years. One cannot deny the fact that there is, within our various health facilities, noticeable improvement in the provision of services. I will touch on a few areas. I want to acknowledge the Immunization Programme. Indeed, as the Minister spoke about the funding level for that programme, I was still wondering whether it will, really, be enough, or sufficient, to address the challenge that it faces within itself. In my view, the Kshs234 million talked about is still inadequate. However, I appreciate that one has to cut one's suit according to one's size. Therefore, perhaps, that is the only amount of money that the Ministry could get for that programme. July 31, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2845 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to appreciate the Ministry's concern about the various health facilities that have come up within the constituencies, courtesy of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) facility. I would like to urge the Ministry headquarters to direct its officers in the districts to closely get involved with the various CDF committees, so that they can know from the inception what facilities are coming up. The Ministry's officials at the district-level should stop this habit of waiting until you go to a public baraza, or a District Development Committee meeting, to ask to be told what facilities are coming where. I am, indeed, aware that CDF committees invite line Ministry officials to attend their meetings, but I appreciate that those officials are always not available due to exigencies of duty. It is, however, imperative that they get involved in the planning of those facilities, so that they do not end up falling into disuse, or start getting wasted. We do not want them to become white elephant projects. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have asked Questions here about those health facilities, and we have been assured by the Ministry that several of them will be registered. Indeed, while moving debate on this Vote, the Minister indicated the number of those facilities she is going to register in the course of this year, but I believe it is important that the Ministry knows how many are at what stages of construction and/or completion, so that, as the Minister spoke about giving every health facility - more so the dispensaries - drug kits, the Ministry can begin planning for those facilities, so that as soon as they get completed, nurses can be posted there and the necessary drug kits are made available to those facilities. Another area of concern to me is that of training of health personnel, and more so the nurses. If you travel outside this country, particularly in South Africa, Europe and America, you will find very many Kenyans who trained in several courses as nurses - some are called \"Enroled Community Health Nurses\" and others \"Registered Community Health Nurses\" - working in all manner of facilities out there. As they do so, our own health facilities in Kenya are wanting in personnel services, the same services those people working out there are trained in. But in the majority of cases, you will find that those nurses were not able to find placements within our own health facilities. This must, therefore, beg the question; whether we are really serious. Even as we speak, I know that there are quite a number of trained nurses who do not have jobs. There are also various health facilities either without, or with inadequate staff. Therefore, I think there is need for the Ministry, without necessarily being burdened by conditions imposed- we use to hear them some years back. I do not know whether it is still there by development partners. I think it is important that this Ministry be allowed to hire sufficient personnel to man our various health facilities, both those which are established and those that will be established. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as the Minister concluded moving her Vote, she talked about the critical role played by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). The Minister indicated that currently - and I am aware--- Those figures were given to me in the Public Investments Committee (PIC) meetings. The NHIF is now able to raise in excess of Kshs3.7 billion. I believe that it is important that the larger part of that money be used to benefit the contributors by increasing their benefits. That is because as we stand today, most of that money goes to administrative costs. That is the indication that I was given about three weeks ago. I speak from a point of knowledge. I wish to urge NHIF to reverse those trends. We appreciate the history. The bad past! Very dirty past where they would start putting up a building at Kshs1.843 billion, and whose cost today is well beyond Kshs5 billion! I think we want to appreciate and forget that very bad past. It is really something that this country and that particular institution must never go back to. It is worrying that as you go to NHIF - it is called Medicare Centre - you will see a building that is coming up there. It is a multi-storey car park. Of course, development of car parks has never 2846 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 31, 2007 been the mandate or role of NHIF. It is nowhere in the mandate and role of NHIF, even within the Act establishing it. So, you ask them: \"How many years would you think it will take for you to recover the sums of money that you have spent on the construction of this multi storey car park?\" The cost of that project, as we speak today, is beyond Kshs1.5 billion. It is more than that. So, you ask them: \"How many car park spaces will be there?\" They say it is about 800 car park spaces. At the current rate, it will take, I think well over 100 years for them to recover the amount of money that they have spent developing that multi storey car park. It is that kind of bad history that we would want never to be repeated within NHIF. We would want to encourage - and I am happy to report that I have noticed that the Ministry has being paying very keen attention to ensuring that NHIF does not revisit those kind of investments--- They should, indeed, move away from investing what they call \"surplus\". That is because NHIF should not even be talking about \"surplus\", when Kenyans are going without medical services. What surplus to do what? This policy of pretending that they are going to invest \"surplus funds\" in various places such as buying of plots - useless plots in the forests where they will never even get the plots because the plots have not been hived off or degazetted as forests should stop. They are still forests and yet, NHIF invested contributors' funds there. It is not their money! I want to commend the Ministry. They have done well to discourage NHIF from following that bad history. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to laud the Minister herself for the bold move that she took recently, in waiving the maternity or delivery fees. As you can appreciate, this is not an area that I can claim expertise. I wondered, and I think it was last week that a Question was asked in this very house, about the waiving of mortuary fees. There is an adage that goes, \"there is no property in a dead body\" I have seen cases where Kenyans come to me, and plead with me to pay their mortuary fees. That is because the friends and relatives of the dead are unable to pay the mortuary fees demanded. You find a body staying in a mortuary for one month. Sometimes, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) gives varied explanations for that. They will tell you that, that person died while admitted in the private wing. But, of course, a sick person or a relative of a very sick person will not choose. When they are told that you can only take your patient to the private wing because that is where you will get the necessary treatment, they will take them there. Even in the sad event that they pass on--- Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, of course, you can imagine the miseries visited on the family. I do not know how the Ministry will address it, but I think it is an issue that really requires some attention. I know that yourself and several of us have passionately addressed the issue of---"
}