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{
    "id": 287678,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/287678/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 103,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang’-Nyong’o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, if the hon. Member listened to me very carefully, he must have heard me say that we have no regulatory powers over private insurance companies. If anything, the Ministry that covers financial institutions is the Ministry of Finance. Ours is to go by our mandate. When it comes to insurance matters, we have only the NHIF as a Government body over which we have control. In that regard, I have said – and I will say again – that our aim is to ensure that the NHIF contributions are enhanced, so that those who go to private insurance companies and face these high premiums for congenital disease will get a more effective cover at much lower premiums from the NHIF. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let us realise that congenital diseases cover a wide range of diseases, which are either as a result of genetics or as a result of mothers’ conditions when they are pregnant. For example, as an hon. Member said, something like hydrocephalus is as a result of lack of folic acid in mother’s food when they are in lactation or when they are pregnant. That means we have to deal with the issue of poverty because hydrocephalus is extremely prevalent in poor neighbourhoods like Kibera, Nairobi. Therefore, the cause of hydrocephalus is known. It should not wait for treatment. It should be dealt with at the level of prevention: That is fighting poverty and making sure that our poor populations have access to nutritious food, especially when mothers are pregnant, in order to avoid the occurrence of congenital diseases."
}