HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 239000,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239000/?format=api",
"text_counter": 160,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Archbishop Ondiek",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 354,
"legal_name": "Stephen Oluoch Ondiek",
"slug": "stephen-ondiek"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important Vote. First, I would like to congratulate the Minister for keeping the promise that she made in this House. She promised to provide an ambulance to Ukwala and she has done that. I am very grateful for that. I would like to urge the Minister to provide ambulances to other health centres. It is very important for every health centre to have adequate facilities, so that patients can be attended to properly. So far, in Ukwala, we do not have any problem. However, we still require more facilities to be provided to our health facilities, for example, at Abila Sub-District Hospital. A sub-district hospital requires to have a doctor. In Abila Sub-District Hospital, we do not have a doctor to attend to the patients. We should have a policy to ensure that when a health centre is being upgraded to a sub-district hospital, enough members of staff are provided. This is very important. I do not know how the Ministry is dealing with the issue of staffing. You will find that a well-built health centre has only one nurse. I would like to request the Minister to look into this issue and make sure that, at least, every health centre has a minimum of three or four nurses and a clinical officer. This will enable the patients to be attended to properly. This is a very important Ministry. It handles the lives of the people. Life is very important. A life can be lost in a second if it is not handled properly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the rural areas, there are no adequate medical facilities. The Ministry should strengthen the rural health centres and sub-district hospitals, so that they can take care of the health of our people. The Minister is doing a very good job although the October 17, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2957 funds we are allocating to her Ministry are very minimal. I would like to urge this House to support any move the Minister proposes to increase funds for this Ministry. In Kenyatta National Hospital, we have a lot of bodies lying in the mortuary because the relatives of the dead cannot afford to pay the medical bills. Most of these people come from the rural areas to look for employment in Nairobi and while they are here, they fall ill and die. In the past, Kenyatta National Hospital used to easily release such bodies. For example, a person will come from the rural area to look for employment in Nairobi although he does not have any relative in Nairobi. If this persons falls ill, he is taken to Kenyatta National Hospital and then he dies. After that, he is taken to the mortuary and it becomes a problem for his family to take the body back home for burial. We should understand our culture and traditions. Bodies are very important to most of our people and people would always like to transport them back home and burry them respectively. The Minister should sit down with her officers and reconsider this issue. Kenyatta National Hospital used to release such bodies without any problem. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the CDF projects. Many projects have been initiated in the rural areas under the CDF Programme. This is a noble course. Many health facilities and secondary schools have been built under the this programme. After putting up the buildings, nothing is being done. I would like to request the Minister to send her officers in all the districts to assess the number of health centres which have been built, so that the Ministry can staff them and provide them with the necessary medical supplies. This would encourage us a lot. In Ukwala, I have built a mortuary, but up to now, we do not have a mortuary attendant. I would like to urge the Ministry to staff all the health facilities that have been put up using the CDF. I know that there is a limitation of funds in the Ministry, but the Minister should make sure that these facilities are staffed and provided with the necessary medical supplies, so that they can be of use to our people. The CDF is a Government initiative and the funds should be put into proper use. We should have enough staff to run the facilities. We can construct wards and theatres using the CDF money, but we may not be able to equip the facilities. We should partner with the Ministry to equip the facilities. The Ministry should give us the technical advice on how to run the facilities, provide staff and equip the wards with beds. For example, Sifugo Health centre, which is fully-built with a complete maternity wing, does not have a single bed. I am urging the Minister to look into these issues and assist our people in the rural areas. I would like to talk about admissions to medical training colleges. We really do not know how students are admitted to the colleges. For example, we have a newly started medical training college in Siaya District. We, the hon. Members from the area contributed towards the construction of the facility. I gave Kshs500,000 and the other two hon. Members from the district also gave Kshs500,000 each. We entered into an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry to consider recruiting students from Siaya District. To our surprise, the college is full of students whose origin we do not know. These are the things that can discourage hon. Members from acting in partnership with the Government. It is important that such MoUs are honoured. We do not mind the college admitting students from other districts. We are all Kenyans, but, at least, the Ministry should give priority to the local people. For example, ten slots should be given to Gem Constituency, ten to Ugenya, ten to Alego/Usonga and 50 slots to other areas. We are all Kenyans. We should not have all the students from outside the district and yet we are the ones who contributed funds to put up the facility. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}