Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 211607,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/211607/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Tett",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Housing",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. One of the most important investments of any Government in any country is good health care. When one is sick, one cannot attend to any activity. One's productivity is nil. Students miss school. Civil servants fail to report to work. If a country has sickly people, it cannot progress. Even when mothers are sick they cannot fend for their children. That is why we should commend the Minister and her team. They have, really, come a long way. We can remember those days when health services were nil in this country. In those days, there were no medicines in this country. I am glad that we have a Minister who is mindful of the welfare of the people of this country. I am also very happy because the Minister happens to be a woman. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to commend her for the recent waiver of maternity fees in public health centres. Unfortunately, she did not touch hospitals like Pumwani Maternity Hospital. I know that, that hospital falls under the management of the Nairobi City Council. Some mothers are detained for non-payment of hospital bills for a long time. A case in point is a woman by the name of Immaculate Wanjiru, who has been there since 12th June, 2007. Her bill has accumulated to Kshs23,000. She is there even today. I do not see the logic of retaining that women there, given that the amount payable to the hospital in respect of her bill increases every day. We need to have a subsidy for such very poor patients. It is not their wish that they stay in hospitals with their babies. It is because of the reigning poverty level. We should touch the \"heart\" of this Ministry, so that it can provide some little money to those institutions which deal with very poor people, and make sure that they do not detain mothers. Previously, the World Health Organisation placed Kenya among the countries with the poorest access to health services record in sub-Saharan Africa. That organisation is now thinking twice. I do not think it will ever again place us as far down as that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the marked decline in HIV/AIDS infection rate is very commendable. Previously, ARVs were unaffordable. People used to die early, because ARVs were very expensive. The Government has now made it possible for people infected with HIV/AIDS to access ARVs. That is why people are happy with this Ministry. The Government has rehabilitated all the clinics that were run down. I remember a lot of clinics in Nairobi, which were vandalised. They have now been rehabilitated and are providing medicines and health care to our people. We never used to have ambulances before but we now have a few ambulances. I know that in Nairobi, we have about four ambulances. We need more ambulances, especially in the rural areas. In her speech, the Minister mentioned that she is going to make sure that we have medical equipment such as X-Ray machines,"
}