HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 233110,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233110/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Muchiri",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 225,
"legal_name": "Muchiri Geoffrey Gachara",
"slug": "geoffrey-gachara"
},
"content": "While speaking about nutrition, we must appreciate that it is a very important subject. A healthy nation is an important nation. Health is important to this country more than anything else. I remember reading Mr. Matiba's Time for Change . In that book, Mr. Matiba underscores the need for us to look into health as a very important aspect in our lives. While I agree with Dr. Ojiambo with regard to the provisions of this Bill, I think nutritionists and dieticians should come together and regulate their own profession. This Bill seeks to create a board and an institute. I am not sure whether there will not be conflict between the board and the institute. The Mover of this Bill should ensure that the board and the institute will not be on a collision course. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 5 stipulates the number of people who are supposed to be in the Board. I think it would have been better if the Board is also comprised of dieticians and nutritionists. I hope an amendment will be crafted to this effect so that the Board is not comprised of laymen. The universal acceptance is that professionals should regulate themselves. If we have a Board comprising of the Permanent Secretary, the Chairman of the Kenya Nutritionist and Dieticians Institute and the rest of them that are listed under Clause 5, that Board may contain non-dieticians. We want that Board to comprise of more dieticians and a few other people who are not dieticians. The Bill should be amended to included that aspect, so that we do not have only three dieticians who are supposed to be nominated by the Minister under Clause 5(e)(viii). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we come to the Institute created by Clause 11, I find that it is a very small body comprising of the chairman or the chairperson and four other members. So, the Institute will have fewer members than the Board. I would have wanted to see the Institute being a larger body. The Institute should have more professionals who will be regulated by the Board. I do not want to sound contradictory, but having read Clauses 5 and 11, I think there is something we can do to harmonize these two clauses. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill also proposes the establishment of a disciplinary committee, which is important. But this House should not create legislation that will become a dead letter. We have created laws and regulations in this House, but enforcing them has been a problem. All the Acts that govern professionals in this country, sometimes we find like they are dead letters. For example, there are other qualified professionals--- I would not wish the Nutritionists and Dieticians Act to be like the Estate Agents Act that was created and thereafter, nothing happened! People are masquerading all over as estate agents. We do not want to create a 3928 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 23, 2006 legislation and then have people masquerading as dieticians and nutritionists, because there is nobody to enforce it. The Ministry of Health has a responsibility to ensure that once this Bill is passed by the House, it is implemented. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also want the whole issue of nutrition and diet to be propagated to our rural folk. When there are Barazas out there in the field, we want to see somebody from the Ministry of Health or from the Ministry of Agriculture standing up to explain to the rural citizens of this country that it is important for them to adhere to the \"Rule of Three\", as we were taught those many years ago. It is also important for somebody to stand up and say how some of our habits are resulting to a lot of illness. We want somebody to tell Kenyans: \"If you eat well, your health is going to be better than when you eat without any particular programme\". A lot of ailments that our people are suffering from can be avoided. We want to tell our people that medicine is not necessarily in the bottle. The medicine could be in your kitchen garden! It is important for us to concentrate on preventive medicine rather than curative medicine. If our people can eat well, then we will be able to avoid curative expenses and all the costs that go with curative medicine. This is the kind of information that we want to pass to our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country is endowed with a lot of resources. We have very good soils and, quite often, we have very good rains in a number of areas. It appears as if we are not utilizing the endowment that this country has. Our people are still eating monolithic food, in the sense that, if they are endowed with a lot of maize or rice, they eat too much of maize or rice. They eat too much meat, particularly fried meat, without realizing that these are some of the foods that cause hypertension, diabetes and such other ailments. So, this particular Bill is very important and I urge this House to pass it. I, personally, support it. I also have the benefit of having a very close relative in my house; my wife, who is trained in this particular aspect. I thank Dr. Ojiambo because she has also done a lot of research in these matters. Without further ado, I beg to support this Bill and urge my colleagues to do the same. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}