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"speaker_name": "Mr. Miriti",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Trade and Industry",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill. This Bill is long overdue. But when you look at HIV/AIDS, you will see a hidden agenda in it. You will see an economic disease. You will see a disease introduced in the world, so that certain people can make money out of it. The way we handle it locally is as if we have been brainwashed. I am saying that because, for example, in protecting our people against the disease, we are buying condoms worth millions of shillings. It is as if we are encouraging it. Indeed, such things are bought, most probably, from the people who introduced the disease. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to comment on Clause 40(1)(b) on research. It is on page 166. It reads:- \"No person shall undertake HIV or AIDS-related biomedical research on another person or any tissue, or blood removed from such a person except. That other person is a child with a written informed consent of a parent or legal guardian of the child\". We know of cases in this country where parents have sold their children. We also know that people can make money out of such a clause. I would suggest that this clause be deleted, so that our children are protected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to comment on Clause 13(2)(a) on page 148. It deals with the issue of employment. It says that people who want to get employment cannot be forced to undergo testing. I do not think we want to employ sick people in our institutions. Take, for example, the armed forces. Those people cannot deliver services. We cannot do that just because there is a law protecting them. I would like to support the hon. Member who suggested that we have compulsory testing for everybody, including you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, and me. That way, we will know the extent of that disease in the country. If we cannot test everybody, how else can we prepare for the disease? How can we know how many people have the disease? How else will we know how many people can infect others? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to comment on Clause 2(g) which provides for health care services in the Ministry like physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and other types. I would like to include psychotherapy and counselling psychology so that such services are also available. I would also request the Ministry of Health to list counselling psychologists as professionals who are employed in the Ministry so that they can offer their services. This service is not recognised and is ignored, and quite a number of universities are now producing such professionals and most of them are not engaged, thus they are suffering out there. June 8, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1257 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the question of confidentiality, as I have talked in terms of compulsory testing, I do not know why this disease is treated as a unique disease. We have so many other terminal diseases like cancer and others which, when people suffer from them, they undergo almost similar circumstances like those of HIV/AIDS, and their confidentiality is not protected the way HIV/AIDS is. I think the confidentiality of HIV/AIDS is protected so that the economic opportunists can make profit out of it because once such protection is offered, so many people are infected. In fact, so many people have died in the world from HIV/AIDS confidentiality. In fact, so many people are now admitted in hospitals and they are incurring such high expenditures that all those people who are manufacturing HIV/AIDS drugs are making a kill out of it. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}