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{
    "id": 364803,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/364803/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 105,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Maj-Gen.) Nkaissery",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 192,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
        "slug": "joseph-nkaissery"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to begin by commending the Mover of the Motion. This is a very important Motion because it involves the health of our people. The Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Health needs to take the sentiments of hon. Members very seriously because a healthy nation is a secure nation. Given the critical shortage of medical personnel, it means that this country is not secure. When you have a shortage of over 30,000 clinical officers and nurses, it means that the country is very unstable. It is a constitutional right of every citizen of this country to access adequate health care. If we do not achieve this, we are not meeting the constitutional requirement. Majority of our trained health personnel have gone to South Sudan and Southern Africa. I was in the United Kingdom (UK) a year ago where I met a nurse who told me that in the UK alone, there were 4,000 nurses from Kenya. That was because the Government then never used to employ nurses. I do not know if the Jubilee Government has gotten its priorities right. Instead of talking about providing laptop computers to children, we should be talking about employing nurses and teachers, so that we can meet the health needs of our people. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Motion demands that 5,000 nurses and 3,000 clinical officers be employed this year, and that a similar number be employed annually. I would recommend the same. In fact, I agree with my colleague from Meru who said that we need to amend the Motion to demand that 10,000 nurses and more than 7,500 clinical officers be employed immediately in order for us to meet the health requirements of our people. Currently, deployment of medical personnel in this country is unbalanced. My friend, hon. Ochieng, alluded to that fact. There are some counties which have so many medical personnel while other counties do not have any. So, harmonising the deployment of the existing medical personnel in the country is very important as we wait for the employment of others, as demanded by the Motion. The main reason as to why I requested the Chairperson of the relevant Departmental Committee to be here, as we make this demand, is for him or her to go to the Cabinet Secretary concerned and demand that Parliament cannot be a talk shop. The resolutions of Parliament must be implemented. Therefore, this is a very important Motion which we should all support. We demand that the Governments meets the demands of this Motion. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}