HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 233117,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233117/?format=api",
"text_counter": 214,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wamunyinyi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 291,
"legal_name": "Athanas Misiko Wafula Wamunyinyi",
"slug": "athanas-wamunyinyi"
},
"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. First of all, I want to join my colleagues in congratulating the hon. Dr. Ojiambo for the work she has done to bring together this very important Bill for enactment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, where I come from, the food that was recommended and people were encouraged to eat was ugali made from millet. Children were fed on porridge also from millet. When some little milk is added in the porridge, it is very nutritious and usually, it is very thick and children cannot cry when they are fed with it. The ugali made from millet was mixed with dried cassava, which is also ground and it is added to the millet. Usually, the ugali that is made from this flour looks black. When it was eaten, there was no meat. Many times, there was either tsisaka or omurere . The omurere is boiled with some milk and no cooking fat. If meat was involved, it had to be dried until it also changed colour and looked like the black ugali. The old men who used to eat this kind of food lived for many years and they were so healthy. They were never sickly. They were never diabetic. There were no such health problems that we experience today. In fact, some of our grandfathers and great grandfathers lived for many years which many of us will not manage. The reason is simple; how they fed, how they lived. The food was also cheap because we just got the millet and cassava from our farms. In fact, there were no posho mills then; they used to grind with stone. So, everything was done traditionally. If our people are encouraged by way of providing regulation and education, and practising what our forefathers did, our lives will improve. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill will put in place statutory regulations and legal framework within which nutritionists and dieticians will operate. It also covers the training and practice. It also provides for any errors, particularly in terms of ethics. The provisions for November 23, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3937 corrective measures, be they punitive or retraining, are there depending on the nature of such errors. The number of people suffering from diabetes in Kenya is on the increase to the extent that for every 100 people, about 30 to 40 people are diabetic. This is a very dangerous trend. One of the major causes of this disease is bad lifestyle. It all depends on how we feed; for instance, we eat a lot of nyama choma, drink Tusker and use a lot of sugar in our tea. Eating food without thinking about the correct diet is something dangerous. The idea of eating ugali and nyama choma everyday and then drinking Tusker somewhere along your way home, say, Kangemi, is quite unhealthy. We must always remember that it is important to eat food on the basis of having a balanced diet. The only people who can advise us and enable the community to understand what needs to be done, especially with regard to the kind of food that we need to eat so that we can bring our sugar levels to normal, are dieticians. It is for that reason that this Bill is very important. All of us in this House need to support it so that it is operationalised as soon as possible to ensure that our people benefit."
}